[Epoch Times, April 20, 2022](The Epoch Times reporter Xu Jian comprehensive report) Charlie Smith (a pseudonym), founder of the censorship and monitoring website GreatFire.com, said that the CCP had worried and feared that if China were different Street protests broke out in the city at the same time, which would challenge its rule. “I’m not sure if they thought that something similar would happen online, and it’s happening.”
The CCP’s severe blockade of Shanghai has caused public anger. Shanghai residents continue to innovate and find various ways to bypass the authorities’ blockade of “sensitive words” and vent their dissatisfaction with the shortage of materials caused by the closure of the city and the CCP regime, which makes the CCP The network administrators are exhausted.
Shanghai, a city of 25 million people, has complained after a weeks-long lockdown that resulted in food shortages, inability to deliver goods and disruptions to health care.
The British “Guardian” reported on April 20 that on the one hand, the CCP regime constantly urged residents to exert its so-called “positive energy”, and on the other hand warned people to “shut up or face punishment.” The authorities also sent drones to broadcast the warning, but Rather than making the people of Shanghai more obedient, these methods led to heightened tensions.
On WeChat, Shanghai netizens shared the names and stories of those who died during the epidemic in groups, including some who died of the new coronavirus (CCP virus, COVID-19), and some who died because the blockade made it impossible to treat.
As the rest of the world eased controls, netizens also criticized the CCP’s “zero policy” and frequently reposted videos of residents being detained, tied outside their apartments, or being brutally treated by “Dabai”. In a video shared online, Dabai appeared to be forcing his way into a man’s apartment, demanding that the man delete an online post.
Most of these posts have been quickly deleted, including academic articles by epidemic prevention expert Zhong Nanshan calling for an “orderly reopening”, articles by Shanghai University of Finance and Economics Dean Liu Xiaobing suggesting shortening the lockdown period, and articles about children who test positive being forced to separate from their parents video, and Caixin’s investigation into unreported deaths, among others.
And Weibo has censored the term “Shanghai grocery shopping” as people complained about food shortages, and by last Sunday, even the first sentence of the Chinese national anthem – “Get up! People who don’t want to be slaves!” Prohibited as hashtags.
However, due to the continuous emergence of revolting posts, the CCP’s censorship system seems to be unable to cover all content, and network administrators have also encountered great “challenges”.
The Guardian reported that in the hours before dawn last week, Weibo suddenly became abnormal. Some posts criticizing the CCP were sent freely, and public grievances erupted instantly.
CCTV’s topic on the official Weibo – “The United States is the world‘s largest human rights deficit country”, and another topic “Many epidemic-related rumors found in Shanghai” were all overturned on the spot. Replacing “CCP” with “United States” to avoid censorship, netizens pushed these two topics into hot searches.
In the thread, many netizens listed the tragic life of the people under the lockdown in Shanghai, the women in the iron chain in Jiangsu and other incidents that cracked down on freedom of speech and unfair rights. They also criticized the CCP official for transferring domestic social problems to the United States.
The posts were deleted by webmasters after staying online for several hours. It was joked that the censors also relaxed a little under the overwork of “996” at the time.
“People no longer trust the CCP regime”
Shanghai, China’s business capital, is generally wealthier than the rest of the country, with a large white-collar, business and academic elite, and more of them educated overseas. “Something must have changed, people have lost trust in the government, they don’t trust the government’s claims, and they question (brainwashed) propaganda,” said Smith, founder of the censorship monitoring site GreatFire.com.
Several recent incidents have strained censorship in the CCP, Smith said. “We’ve had topics from the Chained Woman incident to the war in Ukraine to the Shanghai epidemic, and these topics come up one after the other. How deep can people go to discuss them?”
The CCP cannot fully censor these topics, he said, but diverting attention through the U.S. — constantly blaming the U.S. — pushes people to the limit, “so now netizens have the upper hand, and censors are scrambling to[delete posts]. ).”
Dong Mengyu, a journalist specializing in internet censorship, said the CCP’s censorship mechanism is as strict as ever, but “the creativity of protesters does pose a challenge to the censors,” according to The Guardian. “The amount of dissent reminds me of the early days of Wuhan’s lockdown,” Dong Mengyu said.
In a possible sign that the Chinese Communist Party is trying to impose more control measures, several social media platforms announced that they would soon release users’ IP addresses to combat so-called “rumours”, The Guardian analyzed.
Until this Monday, some posts “criticizing human rights in the United States” remained online. Netizens posted photos of mainland female college students’ dormitories being installed with surveillance cameras for “epidemic prevention”, as well as mock polls, saying that (Shanghainese) lived well Worse than Russia or Ukraine.
Responsible editor: Lin Yan#