Weibo takes tougher action against posts about Weibo measures

Microblogging platform Weibo is cracking down on speech about tougher crackdowns on speech. In a weekly “safety” summary posted on an official Weibo admin account, the platform announced that it had suspended more than 10 accounts for “glorifying the censorship of other accounts.” The owners of the accounts were given suspensions (禁言, jinyan) for posting about, or “hyping” suspensions imposed on other accounts. Such suspensions are often imposed for violating the rules and regulations of the Weibo platform, or for violating Weibo’s numerous but unwritten political taboos.

It appears that this round of censorship targeted accounts that noticed 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 Internet ID program. In a post that was later deleted by censors, Lao argued that the new program is aimed at “monitoring people’s behavior on the Internet.” Her Weibo account was subsequently suspended for 90 days. On X, Jeff Li, a Toronto-based YouTuber and occasional contributor to FTChinese.com, claimed that his Weibo account @我是二姐夫 (@wǒshìèrjiěfū, “I am the second brother-in-law”), was among those suspended for sharing Lao Dongyan’s censored essay, although Li denied that he had “hyped” the suspension of Lao’s account. There was 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 prominent online commentator who was formerly editor-in-chief of the Global Times, was reportedly banned from Weibo for his comments on the private economy after the Third Plenum, a top party conclave held every five years.

Below you can see a screenshot of the Weibo Safety Overviewfollowed by an English translation of the summary’s contents. It includes a number of accounts (anonymized in the original Chinese post by the use of asterisks) that have been suspended for reasons such as “glorifying the censorship of other accounts,” “repeatedly posting negative economic news,” or “flooding Weibo with damaging 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 accounts of “Big V” have been suspended for hyping the censorship of other accounts and thus inciting illegal discussions that damaged the national image.

“Big V” accounts @li****tian and @yuan**xin attacked and mocked Chinese government institutions and systems. Accounts @jie******lüe, @gu*****zhe and @gu***ge repeatedly posted negative economic news and were suspended for violating platform rules and regulations. The account @yubeixiaotiejiang was banned for continuously flooding (Weibo) with harmful foreign information.

Summary and Warning

A reminder to all creators: to avoid stoking irrational suspicion or even harmful comments, do not praise the censorship of other accounts. Weibo will continue to provide creators with creative safety tips and content section management tools to encourage safe creation.

Our delegation to the Paris Olympics delivered China’s best ever performance at an overseas Olympics. While we congratulate the athletes, we must also maintain a rational attitude toward stars and reject bashing (athletes and other fans). We look forward to continued success in future competitions! (Chinese)

The news sparked outrage and jokes on Weibo. One person jokingly asked, “Can we call it ‘twice-cooked censorship’ when an account is censored for praising the censorship of accounts that were suspended for praising the censorship of other accounts?” (The joke refers to “twice-cooked pork,” a popular Sichuan dish.) Many of the Weibo user reactions collected by CDT were expressions of dismay:

Read More : Fuck! Hyping other accounts’ censorship will cause censorship too… 😓

Sonic969 ：Hilarious: Censored for discussing censorship

Official: You can’t say why they’re censored, and you certainly can’t say why you can’t say why.

C0ingwinter: From now on, users will engage in endless self-censorship.

Q: What are the parameters for determining whether someone is “glorifying the censorship of other accounts”?

English: The current speech environment is simply wonderful.

Read More ：Dude, now it’s “hyping”—they’re always coming up with new words like that. Next thing you know, they’ll censor anyone who “hypes” the “censorship hypers.” (Chinese)

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

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

(Top photo: Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying and caption) “Hua Chunying: ‘There are about 1.4 billion people in China, each with his or her own opinions, and everyone has the right to freely express his or her opinions and thoughts online.’”

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