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Fighting online harassment is hard in China’s strictly-monitored cyberspace
Like Twitter and Facebook, Chinese social media platforms have been struggling to keep women safe from harassment
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This article originally appeared on ABACUS
A video of an attack on a woman shook China last week after it started circulating on social media. The footage showed a lone woman walking at night in the northeastern city of Dalian before getting brutally beaten, stripped and then dragged off camera by her hair by an unknown assailant.
The incident sparked an immediate online backlash, with calls to arrest the attacker. Some commenters, though, were ready to churn out demeaning comments about the victim. This is why popular Quora-like platform Zhihu was widely praised for its decision to permanently ban these commenters. The story was even picked up by local media.
Zhihu, where people in China go to ask questions and get answers
However, some believe that Zhihu's move may have more to do with the intricacies of China’s closely monitored cyberspace than concern for rude comments. (Zhihu did not respond to requests for comment.)
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Chinese social media platforms don’t have a great history when it comes to supporting victims of harassment. In 2017, a woman decided to complain online about a neighbor who had been molesting her for years. Her post was followed by a deluge of nasty comments. Instead of deleting them, WeChat deleted the post.
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China’s #MeToo moment has also run into censorship, with accounts belonging to women speaking up about abuse vanishing from platforms like Weibo. (Abacus has reached out to Weibo for comment and will update if we receive a reply.)
How Weibo became China’s most popular blogging platform
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