Chinese university ‘rethinking’ checks on students’ electronic devices after privacy complaints

A university in southern China says it is reconsidering a planned “inspection” of electronic devices on campus after a backlash from students and local media.

Guilin University of Electronic Technology had scheduled the checks on student and faculty devices on campus, from November 7 to 23, to be carried out by its Party and Administration Office.

But a university official surnamed Jiang told Shanghai-based news portal Thepaper.cn on Tuesday there had been no checks so far and the college was “rethinking the plan” because students had complained that it was an invasion of privacy.

“Recently, hostile forces both locally and abroad have been using the internet and mobile phones to spread forbidden and illegal videos,” the university said in a notice about the inspection posted on social media.

It said all faculty and student mobile phones, computers and external disk drives would be checked “to stop the spread of content inciting violence and terrorism, harmful political information, pornographic and other content that corrupts thought”.

The notice also included a direction to “educate” staff and students to “be determined to never watch or listen to, download, copy or share videos that show separatist ideas, violence, terrorism, religious extremism, or other content that threatens national unity and social stability”.