![]() ![]() Two millennia of emperors, wars, revolutions, and bloodshed after Qin Shi Huang, General Secretary Xi Jinping sits at the head of the CCP. In particular, it is the social dimension of WeChat that has allowed technology to become a powerful weapon in tightening censorship and state control in China.Ĭensorship has had a long and unfortunate history in China. As cybersecurity journalist Patrick O’Neill detailed in a 2019 MIT Technology Review article, Beijing heavily pressures Tencent to implement effective real-time censorship of not only text, but also images posted to WeChat users’ Moments (analogous to Facebook’s timeline) and even in group chats and one-on-one conversations. 4īeyond its surface-level ease and accessibility, however, is a darker side, a side strictly monitored and regulated by the CCP: censorship. Though it may sound like an exaggeration to someone who has not used the app before, “leaving WeChat means leaving life in China,” not to mention missing out on the convenience of all of its other functions. 3 As its monopoly continues to expand, the app has become indispensable in Chinese citizens’ lives. 2 The list of uses includes public social media, ordering food delivery, Uber/Lyft-like functionality, sending money to friends, making doctor’s appointments, paying bills, communicating in the business world, and even using government services. However, hand in hand with its popularity, WeChat quickly grew into a “mega-platform,” boasting a massive number of practical features. 1 Released by the state-sponsored company Tencent in 2011, it started out as a simple messaging app. One such service is WeChat, a smartphone app that boasts “over 1.1 billion users”. In their place, China has developed its own domestic internet and affiliated services. As a result, social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other services such as Google, Wikipedia, and Amazon are not available. WECHAT OUT FREEAll rights reserved by Lexington Books.įearing the free flow of information on the internet, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has banned all foreign internet services in China and built the Great Firewall to deny the Chinese people access to outside online sources. ![]() The 2021 smash hit song “ Fragile,” which is censored in China, also mocked the claim.This excerpt is adapted from the forthcoming book Democracy in Crisis around the World. In 2020, a group of Taiwanese bodybuilders attempted, and failed, to recreate the feat (their shoulder yoke broke under the weight). In 2017, CCTV aired a special on Xi Jinping’s time as a sent-down youth in the village of Liangjiahe, Shaanxi Province, in which Xi claimed, “I’d carry 200 jin of wheat on a ten- li mountain road without even switching shoulders.” Mass ridicule followed his boast. ![]() Little did they know, the “bug” was no accident-but rather an automatic censorship mechanism. They sent each other curses and confessions: “200 jin of dumplings, you’re a stupid c***,” “200 jin of dumplings, you’re an idiot,” “200 jin of dumplings, piggy,” and “200 jin of dumplings, you’re a lil’ cutie.” They then shared screenshots of their “discovery” online-delighting in their exploitation of a perceived bug in China’s most popular chat app. In the course of daily conversation, the students found that messages preceded by the term “200 jin of dumplings” (200斤饺子) were not received by their counterparts. A group of students under the impression they had discovered a WeChat “bug” that hides the phrase “200 jin of dumplings” (roughly 220 pounds) had in fact stumbled upon an obscure insult for Xi Jinping that triggers automatic censorship. ![]()
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