The power of Weibo
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When the tennis star Peng Shuai had a row with her former lover, the retired Party cadre Zhang Gaoli, she took to Weibo, the Chinese social media platform, where she had half a million followers. It was in that statement that she accused Zhang of starting their affair with sexual assault.
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\\nThe statement was taken down within minutes, demonstrating the power, speed \\u2013 and, arguably, the manual nature \\u2013 of China\\u2019s online censors. On this podcast, we\\u2019ve previously talked about the nature of journalism in China \\u2013 but what about social media, that inherently decentralised medium? What role does the digital space play in Chinese lives, how reliable is it as a source of Chinese public opinion, and how do people feel about being monitored and, potentially, censored?
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\\nOn the podcast, I speak to Manya Koetse, the founder of whatsonweibo.com, which collates and translates the latest trends and topics from the platform into English; as well as Shen Lu, a reporter for Protocol who covers China and tech.
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\\nThe statement was taken down within minutes, demonstrating the power, speed \\u2013 and, arguably, the manual nature \\u2013 of China\\u2019s online censors. On this podcast, we\\u2019ve previously talked about the nature of journalism in China \\u2013 but what about social media, that inherently decentralised medium? What role does the digital space play in Chinese lives, how reliable is it as a source of Chinese public opinion, and how do people feel about being monitored and, potentially, censored?
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\\nOn the podcast, I speak to Manya Koetse, the founder of whatsonweibo.com, which collates and translates the latest trends and topics from the platform into English; as well as Shen Lu, a reporter for Protocol who covers China and tech.
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With Manya, we muse about what censorship does to a nation\'s online discussion: the focus turns to policy issues like health and safety standards, or more superficial discussions like pets and travel. Yet during the early days of the pandemic last year, we both witnessed an incredible night where, on Weibo, WeChat, and other platforms, Dr Li Wenliang\'s death prompted a universal outpouring of grief. Manya tells me that:\\xa0 \\u2018Dr Li was a story that was too big to censor... censoring all of those discussions would have actually caused more unrest\\u2019.
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Since the pandemic, the digital sphere has also become more nationalistic:\\xa0
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\'The Hong Kong protests definitely was the moment when I saw this new wave of nationalism online, which you\\u2019ve always had, but especially the last two years it\\u2019s been so clear. Covid-19 has only strengthened the wave that started back then\\u2019
I also speak to Shen Lu, who tells me about her experience being censored on Weibo when reporting on China\'s MeToo movement. Censorship has only become worse in recent years \\u2013 she tells me: \' I can no longer tell which friend is which, because we started to self-censor\'. More optimistically though, Lu tells me that all the same political conversations among liberal minded young Chinese are still happening \\u2013 simply offline, these days.
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