China’s Twitter-like Weibo bans more than 1,000 accounts over Covid policy criticism
- Temporary or permanent bans in place for 1,120 users over ‘personal attacks’ against health experts and ‘inciting conflict’, microblogging site says
- Move comes days after Communist Party security bosses warn against using the pandemic to ‘disrupt social order’
Penalties announced for 1,120 users by the Twitter-like microblogging website ranged from temporary account suspensions to permanent bans.
Weibo said it took punitive action after reviewing nearly 13,000 posts featuring criticisms against “experts and academics”.
“Many experts, academics and internet users have been actively using their professional knowledge and gathering authoritative sources to help with combating the pandemic,” a statement from Weibo said on Thursday.
“It is not acceptable to hurl insults at people who hold a different point of view, or publish personal attacks and views that incite conflicts. Any kind of move that is destructive to the [Weibo] community would be handled in a serious manner,” the notice said.
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Weibo did not specify the exact transgressions that sparked the punishments, but the platform – which claims to have half a billion active users – is known to be heavily censored.
One of the largest accounts suspended in the latest censorship wave was that of Liu Chun, senior vice-president of Phoenix New Media, a Hong Kong-listed mainland company.
Liu has more than 12 million followers, and some of his recent blog posts related to China’s pandemic policy are still available online.
His post came days after Beijing announced a significant easing of its strict “zero-Covid” policy of mass testing, quarantine and lockdowns that had been in place since the early days of the pandemic.
National Health Commission guidelines released on December 7 advised mild or asymptomatic cases to isolate at home instead of being sent to quarantine facilities, and dropped all testing requirements for domestic travel.
The move sparked widespread shortages of fever and pain medication, with an anxious population rushing to stock up as cases continued to rise.
Another well-known blogger with the username “Kong Qingdong”, which translates to “Peking University professor”, was among the more popular accounts to be suspended. The verified personal account has more than 4 million followers.
Both Liu and Kong’s accounts were barred from publishing new posts for an unspecified period over “violations of community regulations”, Weibo said.
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Beijing announced further easing last week, with borders to be reopened and all inbound quarantine dropped from January 8.
The abrupt U-turns have not only caught most of the country by surprise but also brought along the biggest Covid-19 outbreak ever for China, sparking widespread drug shortages and straining medical and funeral services.
Top security officials of China’s ruling Communist Party hailed the anti-pandemic policies of the past three years as “scientific, effective” and “totally correct”, as they met in Beijing following the policy shift.
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They also vowed to “safeguard national security and social stability, and resolutely deal according to the law with behaviours that use the pandemic to infiltrate, sabotage, make rumours to start troubles and disrupt social order”, according to a statement published on December 30.
China saw a series of rare protests against zero-Covid in a handful of cities in late November, coinciding with strong downward economic pressures blamed largely on stringent pandemic restrictions.
The sudden relaxation of the draconian rules and the accompanying spike in infections received strong pushback from China’s internet users, especially after analysts who regularly appeared on state media to explain and justify Beijing’s policies struggled to strike a consistent tone before and after the policy shift.
They included public health experts like Liang Wannian, leader of the NHC’s Covid response expert team.
China “could not tolerate” another wave of mass infections, Liang repeatedly warned in October. However, following the policy relaxation, he said the virus was “much milder now”.