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Sina Weibo sacks censor over online attack on bereaved user
- Ji Haoyang falsely accused a woman of lying online about her mother’s death to gain traffic
- His actions triggered a backlash and he lost his job
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A “supervisor” tasked with censoring content for a Chinese Twitter-like social media site has been sacked and deplatformed for accusing a user of lying about her mother’s death after having a coronavirus vaccine.
Microblogging platform Sina Weibo said on Sunday that Ji Haoyang had been fired for posting “unconfirmed and inappropriate remarks on his account and comments, misleading other users and having a bad influence”.
The decision followed a public backlash over Ji’s claims that an internet user “Tomo Jiangjiang” posted fake news about her mother’s death and had an adverse impact on the country.
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Tomo Jiangjiang said her mother became ill five days after taking her first dose of the Sinopharm coronavirus vaccine on March 26, and died on June 30.
She expressed her sadness over the loss and thanked people who had offered advice on treatment.
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A look inside Weibo’s office in Beijing
A look inside Weibo’s office in Beijing
But on Thursday, Ji accused her of lying to gain internet traffic and banned her Weibo account, saying the police had detained her and found her mother was alive and well.
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