Chinese students are using tags (metadata in the form of a folksonomy) to protest restrictions on access to bulletin board services on the web. They are using Flickr, del.icio.us, and Technorati to route around the Chinese government's information blockades.
Students Use Tags to Protest Chinese Govt Restrictions on BBSs:
China Digital Times reports on government crackdowns on the most influential university BBSs in China -- and the use of tags on del.icio.us, Technorati, and Flickr to track the story.
(Thanks, Xiao!)
From March 16, some of the most influential University BBS (Bulletin Board System) in China, including the one of Tsinghua University (smth.org), Peking University (ytht.org) and Nanjing University (lilybbs.org), have been restricted to users with an IP inside the university only. That means public users, who make remarkable contribution to the conversation, are not able to access these BBS any more. Before, these BBS hosted very active public forums and attracted millions of registered visitors inside and outside the university. Protests have been organized around Chinese universities. People are calling it an insult on the freedom of speech, but soon their posts were deleted and their voice stifled by university administration.
UPDATE on 9:00 am March 20: Reactions and commentaries on the ban are proliferating in the blogosphere. Blog posts, flickr photos, furl and del.icio.us bookmarks on the topic can now be tracked via smth tag on Technorati or Flickr. This is a very effective way to aggregate "sensitive information" through a distributive process in a politically censored cyberspace .
(Via Smart Mobs)