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- Chinese officials have spent years censoring content deemed unfavorable by the government, but regulators are now taking aim at online pessimists
- The Cyberspace Administration of China announced an operation to stop people from “one-sidedly promoting absolutist and pessimistic sentiments such as ‘hard work is useless’ and ‘studying is useless’ “
- The regulators accused people of “splicing and editing content or using matrix accounts to fabricate and spread rumors about the economy, finance, social welfare, and public policies”
Officials in China have spent years censoring content deemed unfavorable by the government, but regulators are now targeting online pessimists.
In late September, the Cyberspace Administration of China announced a two-month operation to stop people from “one-sidedly promoting absolutist and pessimistic sentiments such as ‘hard work is useless’ and ‘studying is useless,’ ” the agency said in an English translation.
Officials argued that people are “maliciously interpreting social phenomena, one-sidedly amplifying negative individual cases, and exploiting them to promote negative outlooks on life such as world-weariness.”
The online regulators even accused citizens of “splicing and editing content or using matrix accounts to fabricate and spread rumors about the economy, finance, social welfare, and public policies” and “fabricating false identities and personas such as ‘masters’ and ‘experts’ to ‘sell’ anxiety around employment, marriage, and education, promoting products and courses.”
The agency’s move came after several people found their accounts had been banned from social media or their videos were removed after sharing content about “lying flat,” a Chinese trend deprioritizing stress and work, according to CNN.
Now, the censorship efforts will target “short videos, livestreams, social media platforms, and forums, specifically targeting content that deliberately creates gender, regional, and class divides,”
China’s state-run CCTV said in an “online commentary” translated to English. “Once an illegal account is discovered, its traffic should be restricted, its content should be banned, and its account should be blocked, effectively acting as a ‘filter’ for cyberspace.”
The government’s push to further limit online speech is taking place as China’s national economy wobbles and unemployment rises.
“The root cause is deteriorating economic and social prospects for many Chinese, which has led to what for any country would be a natural social response — the expression of anxiety and misgiving,” David Bandurski, director of the China Media Project, told The New York Times.
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Weibo, a blogging platform, has reportedly removed more than 16,000 pieces of content and imposed “phased bans” or account closures on more than 1,200 people in accordance with the new operation.
