Anti-CNN to drop name, change identity

• Source: The Global Times
• [20:50 May 25 2009]
• Comments

Protestors chant in front of University of Washington in Seattle on April 14, 2008. Photo: ACCN

By Zhang Feifei

His eyes fixed again on the photos on the wall: colorful pictures of protests against CNN during last April's Olympic torch relay in the United States. They hang like trophies, souvenirs of a glorious past.

"I still feel passionate," smiled Rao Jin, 24-year-old founder of Anti-CNN. com, "but not as spirited as that time."

Rao's been busy. After a round of meetings with business partners and media-savvy advisors, he's re-branding the whole website: gone is the "combative title" of "Anti-CNN". In its place is "ACCN", short for "Access China Communication Network."

A new slogan "Just another voice" replaces "Don't be like CNN!"

Tsinghua graduate Rao, also the owner of IT company Cesky, said he wants "limited commercialization" and "modernization" of Anti-CNN into a "comprehensive community news website."

"The name 'Anti-CNN' was good to rally strength and fight biased reports at that time, but too easily lead to misunderstanding," said Rao.

"Life is about more than politics and debate. With these changes, I hope netizens on the website will chill out, be a bit more peaceful."

Though Anti-CNN's moderators tried to create a rational framework for expression of patriotic opinions, the complexity and diversity of its netizens makes it never an easy job.

"We were united together when fighting on Tibet and the Olympics issue," George Cui, one of the senior moderators – better known as "thin air" in the forum – told the Global Times. "But after the Olympics, with the easing of outside pressure, the differences between leftists and rightists inside the website began to appear."

Perhaps the most famous battle occurred between members "Luzhoubulaojiao" and "Jiangchun" last September. After Jiangchun depicted Chinese as too slavish to fight authority, Luzhoubulaojiao and his supporters responded with fury, debating a range of topics including Chinese national character and democracy.

As the expletive-loaded war of words grew increasingly bitter, both Lu and Jiang were punished for personal attacks by the moderator and left the forum days later, "leaving behind a bunch of still-fighting and badly-hurt netizens, some of them even in the management team," as a member with the ID "Shen Hongtao of Hebei" wrote.

Cui sometimes felt "lost" when all the brawling broke out, he admitted. "It's never an easy job for us to hold the steering wheel with both leftists and rightists aboard.

"There is this sense of confusion and loneliness, especially when you have just finished a fierce battle with your adversaries and can't yet find a new one."

Cui's reaction is only natural, according to Professor Yu Guoming, associate dean of the School of Journalism and Communication in Renmin University of China, Beijing.

"It's very common for young people to feel lost after an outburst of anger. Being lost is the beginning of thinking which may lead to more rational minds."
No fully accurate or reliable statistics are available about Anti-CNN's registered membership, but the main source of its voluntary moderators came from university students, home and abroad, Rao said.

"The young netizens born in the 1980s often make sharp observations on the Internet," said Yu, "but they easily resort to emotional reactions."