Chinese web users get creative to dodge COVID censorship

Chinese web users get creative to dodge COVID censorship

BEIJING: From quoting the national anthem to referencing Hollywood blockbusters and George Orwell’s dystopian novel “1984”, Chinese web users are using creative methods to dodge censorship and voice discontent over COVID measures. China maintains a tight grip over the internet, with legions of censors scrubbing out posts that cast the Communist Party’s policies in a negative light. The censorship machine is now in overdrive to defend Beijing’s stringent zero-COVID policy as the business hub of Shanghai endures weeks of lockdown to tackle an outbreak. Stuck at home, many of the city’s 25 million residents have taken to social media to vent fury over food shortages and spartan quarantine conditions.

Charlie Smith, co-founder of censorship monitoring website GreatFire.org, said the Shanghai lockdown had become “too big of an issue to be able to completely censor”. Hell-bent on getting their messages out, wily web users were turning to tricks such as flipping images and using wordplay, he said, using a pseudonym due to the sensitivity of his work. In one example, censors deleted a popular hashtag on the Weibo social media platform quoting the first line of China’s national anthem: “Arise, those who refuse to be slaves.”

The line was being shared alongside a torrent