Extra! Extra! 56.com shutdown, 184 aftershocks in 24 hours and the running teacher

• Kaiser Kuo of the Ogilvy China Digital Watch breaks the news: Video sharing site 56.com has been temporarily shut down by "the Guangdong provincial branch of the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television (SARFT), acting on orders from SARFT’s national leadership, according to a highly-placed industry insider who declined to be named. The closure seems to have been in effect since 6pm on June 3". A spokesperson from 56.com has cited server malfunction and denied any shutdown.
• The China Seismological Bureau says that 184 aftershocks were observed in the 24 hours ending Wednesday afternoon. That's a whole lot of seismic activity, people! We're no earthquake experts, but it has been said that small, frequent quakes are better than no activity in earthquake-prone zones.
• In the meanwhile, earthquake donations from China and abroad have reached a whopping 43.68 billion yuan (about 6.24 billion U.S. dollars), according to the Information Office of the State Council. Let's hope the money reaches those who need it the most.
• McAfee reports that the two riskiest top-level Internet domains in terms of security are .hk and .cn.
• Here's one story that we missed 3 days ago, but an excellent one, by Danwei's Joel Martinsen. A teacher by the name of Fan Meizhong (范美忠) has been lambasted by Chinese netizens and nicknamed "Runner Fan" (范跑跑) for being the first to escape from the classroom when the earthquake hit, leaving his shell-shocked students behind. In an interview with the Changjiang Times, Fan has said that while he may not be the most noble guy around, he did what he did for himself and has not broken any Chinese law. Netizens are calling for the principal of his school to sack him.

Photo by Mike Chen.