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A man walks into an office of Sina Weibo, widely known as Chinas version of Twitter. Photo: WANG ZHAO/AFP/Getty Images

When shares of Chinese microblogging network Weibo a.k.a. the Twitter of China begin trading on the NASDAQ stock market today, investors will be calibrating their enthusiasm to account for the risk of future censorship by Chinese officials.

Freedom isnt the only thing thats lost to censorship and surveillance oppression also costs money

Thats because Weibo itself told them to do so, with the company warning repeatedly of censorship risk in filings with federal regulators. Regulation and censorship of information disseminated over the internet in China may adversely affect our business and subject us to liability, Weibo said. In particular, said Weibo, it could have a hard time attracting and engaging users if people are afraid to post content to the service.

Weibos raising of red flags is the latest example of how online civil liberties issues are inflicting very real costs on internet companies and, by extension, the countries that host them. And China is hardly the only culprit. The censorship-sullied IPO comes on the heels of revelations of widespread surveillance by the U.S. government, and evidence that such surveillance slowed and complicated business for companies trying to sell cloud-based solutions to large corporations. In Russia, meanwhile, the CEO of the countrys largest social network, VK, resigned under a cloud, implying Kremlin interference. In each case, freedom isnt the only thing thats lost. Oppression also costs money.

At Weibo, government crackdowns seem to have already hobbled the social network. After authorities passed a law threatening to jail anyone who posted an inaccurate message that was reposted more than 500 times, monthly users declined by 28 million. Today, the company has just 129 million monthly users, barely half that of Twitter.

To be sure, some of Weibos has been due to competition from mobile-native competitor WeChat. Weibo also suffers because its users arent valued as highly as those on U.S. based networks, in part because the company hasnt developed mature ad offerings; Weibo will be worth less than a sixth as much as Twitter if it sells 20 million shares today at $17 to $19 a piece, as planned.

Weibo isnt alone in saying that government interference can hurt the bottom line. The New York Times last month reported that U.S. tech companies are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to build overseas data centers to reassure clients nervous about surveillance by the U.S. National Security Agency.

Silicon Valley startups say its gotten harder to convince large customers their data will be safe since revelations of mass surveillance were leaked by ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden last year.

Our conversations with customers and prospective customers around cloud deployment has only gotten tougher since Snowden, says Matt Tucker, co-founder of Jive Software, which makes collaboration software and social networks for corporations.

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Costs of Censorship Haunt Chinese Twitter IPO

Despite Russia's attempts to control the Internet and manipulate opinion, especially over events in Ukraine, the truth seeps out. Social-media activists help ensure the free flow of ideas and facts.

The lie couldnt last for long, not in the Internet Age.

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On Thursday, President Vladimir Putin admitted for the first time that the troops in unmarked uniforms who took control of Ukraines Crimean Peninsula last month were Russian soldiers after all, not the local militia that he had claimed.

What made Mr. Putin fess up?

Perhaps it was the fact that many Russians are bypassing the Kremlin propaganda machine and turning to social media activists for the truth. One example is the Ukraine Crisis Media Center. It runs a fact-checking website called StopFake.org, which relies on dozens of volunteers to gather information that can refute the distortions and propaganda about Russias actions in Ukraine.

In the continuing struggle over Ukraine, the use of the Internet to spread the truth remains a powerful tool to counter Putins attempts to paint a false picture of events. It may even have helped push Russia into an agreement at talks Thursday in Geneva that calls for all illegal armed groups in Ukraine to be disarmed.

Nearly two-thirds of Russians say it is important that people have access to the Internet without government censorship, according to a 2013 Pew poll. Among young adults, this embrace of Web freedom is even stronger. But over the past two years, Putin has sought to rein in the Internet and other media in order to manipulate public opinion.

In January, investors close to Putin took control of the largest social media network, VKontakte. And a law that took effect Feb. 1 allows websites to be blocked if they are seen as extremist or inciting antigovernment protests. More than 100 sites have been shut down so far in an attempt to stifle political opposition.

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An Internet army of truth-tellers

Americas mainstream media still pretendsit is the custodian of serious journalism, but that claim continues to erode as the corporate press shies away from its duty to challengepropaganda emanating from various parts of the U.S. government, as Danny Schechter describes.

By Danny Schechter

First the good news: The Pulitzer Prize for Public Service was not only the best covered of its awards this year, but it recognized a series of disclosures that made many media outlets nervous, if not adversarial the publication of National Security Agency secrets leaked by Edward Snowden.

The award recognized the reporting by the Guardian in England and also Bart Gellmans work in the Washington Post even as they, did not recognize the work directly of Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras whose independent reporting appeared in many newspapers.

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden speaking in Moscow on Oct. 9, 2013. (From a video posted by WikiLeaks)

Poitras and Greenwald still make the news world nervous because a) they are outspoken, b) not always under the control and discipline of traditional editors, and 3) have an openly respectful and positive relationship with their source as if that is a high crime or misdemeanor.

It is significant that they were recognized by the Polk awards, but not the Pulitzer board. In some higher circles, their source, Edward Snowden, is still considered a traitor or worse.

The Pulitzer Prize is the big enchildada in the media world announced in a formal ceremony at the Pulitzer room in the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism on New Yorks Morningside Heights. The journalists who win these prizes are recognized for life as Pulitzer Prize Winners, a sign that they reached the highest heights in the profession. Its a ticket to raises and more recognition.

I once was once told by a former dean of the same J School where I taught as an adjunct that they considered themselves the Taj Mahal of American Journalism. I didnt have the heart to remind her that the original Taj was built as a tomb.

Almost as significant as the prizes to stories emanating from a whistleblower was the award to an investigative report into coal miners who were denied black-lung disease benefits, a report produced by one of the not-for-profit media organizations, the Center for Public Integrity. A CPI reporter, Chris Hamby, won that one.

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The Corruption of Mainstream Media

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