02-01-2022
Who Executes the Chinese Communist Party's Censorship?
Weibo is a blogging site operated by a Beijing company in China. Many people and businesses use Weibo as a social media platform to express themselves and promote their products or brands. However, unknown to many, Weibo follows a set of CCP censorship rules when it comes blog content.
On November 2, 2021, Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai posted a blog on Weibo. Using her own personal account, she described in the blog how she suffered a sexual assault by Zhang Gao Li before she began an affair. The blog stayed on Weibo for mere 20 minutes before it was taken down.
Peng Shuai's blog describes her personal experience and emotional trauma from having an affair with a 75-year old former senior official, a retired member of the standing committee of the Chinese Communist Party's Politburo. It presents highly credible details, including how Zhang Gao Li pressured her into the affair and a description of how Zhang's wife participated in the affair by standing on guard at the door. Neither Zhang Gao Li nor his wife has publicly denied Peng Shuai's account.
On September 1, 2021, a Weibo user posted a blog about how his mother's receiving a dose of vaccination and becoming sick days later. The blog says:
'My mother took Beijing Biological Company's 1st dose on March 26. On March 31, she was diagnosed with a rash caused by medicine. She passed away on June 30! Thank everyone for suggesting plans of cure to me. We adopted many good plans of cure! We also met many good doctors. We tried our best but did not succeed in saving her life. Doctors also felt helpless. Perhaps heaven did not want her to suffer any more. ... '
The blog did not accuse the Beijing vaccine manufacturer of any wrong doing. Nevertheless, a blog censor working at Weibo named Ji Hao Yang took down this blog due to 'sensitive content'.
Ji's action caused an angry uproar among many Chinese users. They are outraged that Weibo heartlessly took down such a personal blog, which simply reported a citizen's mother passing away due to complications possibly due to a Covid-19 vaccine produced by a Beijing company. Weibo was forced to reprimand the censor and fired him.
Before the Covid-19, there were numerous publicized scandals involving vaccines produced by Chinese companies that turned out to be either ineffective at best or having harmful side effects at worst. There are still a significant number of people in China who simply refuse to take vaccines for the Covid-19 pandemic.
Yet, in these cases, Weibo acted as an executioner of the censorship of the Chinese Communist Party. There are many other blogs whose authors may not have the world-renown as Peng Shuai's. They fell victim to Weibo's taking down without an explanation.
On Weibo, a blog that containss any expression that is considered touching a 'sensitive subject' is removed or censored. Any writing which is considered offensive by the CCP is taken down. The point is Weibo, by following the CCP's rules, has become the executioner of its censorship, much like a butcher's knife.
Is anything on Weibo still worth reading? Is there anything on Weibo still credible?
On November 2, 2021, Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai posted a blog on Weibo. Using her own personal account, she described in the blog how she suffered a sexual assault by Zhang Gao Li before she began an affair. The blog stayed on Weibo for mere 20 minutes before it was taken down.
Peng Shuai's blog describes her personal experience and emotional trauma from having an affair with a 75-year old former senior official, a retired member of the standing committee of the Chinese Communist Party's Politburo. It presents highly credible details, including how Zhang Gao Li pressured her into the affair and a description of how Zhang's wife participated in the affair by standing on guard at the door. Neither Zhang Gao Li nor his wife has publicly denied Peng Shuai's account.
On September 1, 2021, a Weibo user posted a blog about how his mother's receiving a dose of vaccination and becoming sick days later. The blog says:
'My mother took Beijing Biological Company's 1st dose on March 26. On March 31, she was diagnosed with a rash caused by medicine. She passed away on June 30! Thank everyone for suggesting plans of cure to me. We adopted many good plans of cure! We also met many good doctors. We tried our best but did not succeed in saving her life. Doctors also felt helpless. Perhaps heaven did not want her to suffer any more. ... '
The blog did not accuse the Beijing vaccine manufacturer of any wrong doing. Nevertheless, a blog censor working at Weibo named Ji Hao Yang took down this blog due to 'sensitive content'.
Ji's action caused an angry uproar among many Chinese users. They are outraged that Weibo heartlessly took down such a personal blog, which simply reported a citizen's mother passing away due to complications possibly due to a Covid-19 vaccine produced by a Beijing company. Weibo was forced to reprimand the censor and fired him.
Before the Covid-19, there were numerous publicized scandals involving vaccines produced by Chinese companies that turned out to be either ineffective at best or having harmful side effects at worst. There are still a significant number of people in China who simply refuse to take vaccines for the Covid-19 pandemic.
Yet, in these cases, Weibo acted as an executioner of the censorship of the Chinese Communist Party. There are many other blogs whose authors may not have the world-renown as Peng Shuai's. They fell victim to Weibo's taking down without an explanation.
On Weibo, a blog that containss any expression that is considered touching a 'sensitive subject' is removed or censored. Any writing which is considered offensive by the CCP is taken down. The point is Weibo, by following the CCP's rules, has become the executioner of its censorship, much like a butcher's knife.
Is anything on Weibo still worth reading? Is there anything on Weibo still credible?
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