Coronavirus: Chinese censors kick teachers out of online classrooms for politics, profanity and smoking
- Teachers take to social media to complain that touchy streaming services cut them off for terms and discussions that are important to lessons
- Education ministry has started TV broadcasts to pupils in remote areas
Teachers across China have been cut off from their virtual classrooms for discussing politics, alleged profanity, and smoking when schools closed by the coronavirus outbreak started lessons online after an extended Lunar New Year break.
Frustrated by what they said were overreactions by censors and beset by technical problems, teachers, parents and pupils aired their grievances on social media.
Chinese networks are governed by strict laws against material deemed to be sensitive or lewd, and internet companies comply through self-censorship and cooperation with official censors.
In one instance, a teacher who was blocked for using bad language during a live stream class on the social media network QQ wrote on WeChat on Monday: “I thought about it for a while, then I realised it was probably because I was describing genital anatomy.
“I teach obstetrics and gynaecology, what do you want me to say? I’ll bet all the professional terms I need to use will be suspected of being dirty words,” the teacher said.