How WeChat censored even neutral messages about the coronavirus in China
- Hundreds of keyword combinations blocked on the social media app, Canada-based researchers find
- Blacklisted terms change over time and include uncontroversial references to Chinese leaders
As well as politically sensitive terms, the researchers found that WeChat censored keyword combinations ranging from discussions of Chinese leaders’ responses to the outbreak, neutral references to government policies on handling the epidemic, responses to the outbreak in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau, and references to Li Wenliang, a doctor who died after raising concerns about the outbreak.
The analysis was conducted by the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy and based on tests of keywords extracted from reports on major news websites in mainland China and Hong Kong.
“Many of [the censored keywords] refer to the leadership in a neutral way … eight of the Xi-related keyword combinations reference his whereabouts during the outbreak such as whether he had been to Wuhan city,” the report said, referring to Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has not visited the central Chinese city where the virus emerged.
Premier Li Keqiang visited Wuhan in late January, but keyword combinations of “pneumonia, Li Keqiang, Wuhan, premier and Beijing” were censored as well, the researchers found in their tests conducted between January 1 and February 15.
WeChat, a hugely popular social media app with more than 1.1 billion active monthly users, started to censor group discussions on the coronavirus from January 1, one day after Li Wenliang warned his medical colleagues in a private chat group about a suspected outbreak, the researchers said.
During the period, the platform censored at least 516 keyword combinations – in both simplified and traditional Chinese – directly related to the coronavirus, with a noticeable increase in February.