NFTs preserve Shanghai’s Covid-19 lockdown record from China censorship
- In a cat-and-mouse game with censors, some residents are turning to blockchain where data cannot be erased
- Hundreds of NFTs are available in world’s largest marketplace OpenSea relating to single video which censors tried to suppress
Unable to leave their homes for weeks at a time, many of Shanghai’s 25 million residents have been unleashing their frustrations online – over draconian lockdown curbs and the difficulties of getting enough food. They have also shared stories of hardship, such as patients unable to get medical treatment.
That has intensified the cat-and-mouse game with Chinese censors, who have vowed to step up policing of the internet and group chats to prevent what they describe as rumours and efforts to stoke discord over seething public frustration with the lockdown.
While some people have defiantly continued reposting the content, others are minting videos, photos and artworks capturing their ordeal as NFTs, attracted in part by the fact that data recorded on the blockchain is unerasable.
The height of Shanghai’s lockdown NFT minting moment is rooted in an overnight online battle on April 22, between censors and people sharing a six-minute video called The Voice of April – a montage of voices recorded during the outbreak.
As of Monday, 786 different items related to the video were on OpenSea, the world’s largest NFT marketplace, alongside hundreds of other NFTs related to the lockdown in Shanghai.