Woe to those who shared a photo, video or even a simple comment of this banner calling for the overthrow of President Xi Jinping. The message was broadcast last week, on one of Beijing’s road bridges, on the eve of the very sensitive 20th Communist Party Congress, which has been held since Sunday, October 16.
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To stifle its spread, hundreds of WeChat social network accounts have been deactivated or even deleted. This upsets the daily lives of many Chinese, because WeChat is not a simple social network: the application has millions of users and brings together all of their contacts, allows you to pay at the supermarket checkout, take a taxi or even show your health code at the entrance to public buildings. Without it, users are deprived of many features of everyday life.
This is the case of a resident of Shanghai that franceinfo managed to reach. She shared a picture of the anti-regime banner in one of her private chats. The regime spotted her and censored her account. “A few hours after the photo was sent, my wife’s WeChat social function was permanently blocked“, says her husband.
He details the consequences:This account, she had been using it for ten years, she lost the 4,000 contacts she had, such as her former colleagues, her friends and especially her clients, with whom she can no longer work. The impact on his life and work is very significant. Today, she regrets it because she knew it could happen.“
Many Chinese find themselves deprived of one of their main professional tools. Especially since censorship has sometimes struck blindly, sanctioning keywords and the slightest allusion to the famous banner. In an attempt to find the functionalities of the social network, dozens of users are doing their my culpabegging WeChat to restore their account.
They then promise to respect the instructions of the authorities: “I will no longer post inappropriate images.“, writes a user. “I seriously thought about my mistake, and I promise… to strictly follow the instructions“, testifies another, before his message, posted on another social network, was deleted. The Shanghai resident tried twice to recreate a WeChat account. They were immediately censored.