Weibo cracks down on repression posts on Weibo

Microblogging platform Weibo is cracking down on speech repression. In a weekly “security” summary posted on the official Weibo administrators’ account, the platform announced that it had suspended more than 10 accounts for “blowing up censorship of other accounts.” The account holders received suspensions (禁言, gin) for reposting or “blowing up” suspensions imposed on other accounts. Such suspensions are often imposed for violating Weibo’s platform rules and regulations or transgressing Weibo’s numerous but unwritten political taboos.

This round of censorship appears to have targeted accounts that have seen the suspension of Lao Dongyan’s Weibo account. Lao is an outspoken Tsinghua law professor who recently criticized the Chinese government’s draft proposal to create a national online identification program. In a post that was later deleted by censors, Lao argued that the new program aims to “control people’s online behavior.” Her Weibo account was subsequently suspended for 90 days. On X, Toronto-based YouTuber and occasional FTChinese.com contributor Jeff Li claimed that his Weibo account @我是二姐夫 (@inǒshìèrjiěfū, “I Am the Second Brother-in-Law”), was among those suspended for sharing a censored essay by Lao Dongyan, although Li denied that he “bloated” the suspension of Lao’s account. There has been speculation on Weibo that some other accounts may have been banned for discussing or commenting on Hu Xijin’s disappearance from the site. Hu, a well-known online commentator who was previously editor-in-chief of the Global Times, was reportedly banned from Weibo for his comments on the private economy following the Third Plenum, the party’s most important gathering held once every five years.

Below is a screenshot Weibo Security Summaryfollowed by an English translation of the summary’s content. It lists a number of accounts (anonymized in the original Chinese post using asterisks) that have been suspended for reasons such as “inflating censorship of other accounts,” “repeatedly posting negative economic news,” or “flood[ing]Weibo with harmful foreign information”:

2024, Volume 29

Weekly Safety Tips

Example cases

@ling**xing, @wo***fu, @M******bi, @jiang****zi, @qun*****jia, @pan**tan, @shen**jing, @shi**yang, @lin*xiang, @bei***ren and other “Big V” accounts were suspended for exposing the censorship of other accounts, thus spreading illegal discussion that defamed and damaged the country’s image.

“Big V” accounts @li****tian and @yuan**xin have attacked and ridiculed Chinese government institutions and systems. @jie******lüe, @gu*****zhe, and @gu***ge have repeatedly posted negative economic news and have been suspended for violating platform rules and regulations. @yubeixiaotiejiang has been banned for constantly flooding (Weibo) with harmful foreign information.

Summary and Warning

A reminder to all creators: To avoid fueling irrational suspicions or even harmful comments, please do not publicize the censorship of other accounts. Weibo will continue to provide creators with creative safety tips and content section management tools to help promote safe creation.

Our delegation to the Paris Olympic Games achieved China’s best result at an overseas Olympic Games. While congratulating the athletes, we must maintain a rational approach to the stars and reject criticism (from athletes and other fans). We look forward to continued success in future competitions! (Chinese)

The news sparked outrage—and jokes—on Weibo. One joked, “Can we call this ‘twice-cooked censorship,’ when an account gets censored for exaggerating the censorship of accounts suspended for exaggerating the censorship of other accounts?” (The joke refers to “twice-cooked pork,” a popular Sichuan dish.) Many of the responses from Weibo users collected by CDT expressed dismay:

Reply：Fuck! Fueling censorship of other accounts will also trigger censorship… 😓

Sonic969 ：Funny: Censored for discussing censorship

刺猬头_Official: There’s no way to say why they were censored, and there’s certainly no way to say why.

C0ingwinter ：From now on, users will self-censor indefinitely.

Question: What are the parameters that determine whether someone is “exposing the censorship of other accounts”?

重生第三次: The current speech environment is simply wonderful.

Dude, now it’s “hyping” — they keep coming up with new words like that. Then they’ll censor anyone who “hypes” the “hyper censors.” (Chinese)

In the comments section of the original Weibo post announcing the suspensions, buried beneath a sea of ​​seemingly staged comments of support, one Weibo user sarcastically praised freedom of speech in China, citing earlier statements by Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) spokespeople:

Adrian_Zhang_bj: 1.4 billion people have the right to express their opinions.

(Top photo: MoFA spokeswoman Hua Chunying and caption) “Hua Chunying: “There are about 1.4 billion people in China, each of them has their own mind, and everyone has the right to freely express their views and thoughts online.”

(Bottom photo: Former Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian and caption) “Ministry of Foreign Affairs: ‘There are no speech crimes in China.’” (Chinese)