China's Social Media: Same, Same, but Different

Thomas Crampton will speak about China's social media at Stanford University.

Much has been written lately about the Chinese government's efforts to control and censor the Internet. Internet censorship is an important issue, but it is not the top priority of the country's 420 million Internet users. Their top priority? Connecting with other Chinese online. The Internet has opened access to information for ordinary Chinese citizens in ways that were unimaginable just a few years ago. Coming from a world where information was pre-filtered by editors at state-run media, China's Internet is freewheeling by comparison. Rather than kill social media, controls imposed by the government have created a vibrant and unique social media domestic ecosystem.

Thomas Crampton, who runs social media strategy in Asia-Pacific for the marketing and communications company Ogilvy and Mather, will speak about what social media means to China and Asia. A former foreign correspondent for The New York Times and International Herald Tribune, he formerly looked at the region in terms of political, economic and social issues. In his current role he has been participating in the changes as social media affect Asia economics, politics and society.