For the past few days, numerous protests against the “zero COVID” policy have been breaking out in China.
The fire in a building subject to containment measures, which caused the death of 10 people, is (among other things) the cause.
Anger grows in China over ‘zero COVID’ policy
In China, for almost 3 years, the very strict “zero COVID” health policy has had dramatic consequences for the country’s economy, but also on the daily life of the inhabitants. Major demonstrations have therefore been breaking out for the past few days, with hundreds of people in the streets of many cities across the country.
This protest movement was notably provoked by the fire of a building which killed 10 people: the containment measures hampered the work of the rescuers. It was enough to explode the anger of many inhabitants, who no longer hesitate to express their dissatisfaction in the eyes of the whole world.
Twitter, Instagram and Telegram in the sights of the authorities
In order to coordinate their efforts, the demonstrators go through various foreign social networks, even if it means defying the ban. Thus, many are those who use Telegram, Twitter or Instagram to expose the situation experienced on the spot to everyone’s eyes.
In response, the local police decided to control the inhabitants, sometimes at the bend of a street, at a bus stop, in the metro, in a shopping center… The officers thus take care to check whether the smartphones carry applications prohibited and whether their users have shared images and/or information with ” the outside world “.
In addition, an army of fake Chinese accounts are in charge of flooding certain platforms (notably Twitter) with information and pornographic images, escorts, gambling… It would be, according to some, a spam campaign developed by the government with the one and only objective of tricking the app’s algorithm into drowning the information, videos and images of the ongoing protests in a flood of irrelevant content.
For various experts, this is an intentional operation aimed at reducing the international (and national) visibility of the demonstrations on Chinese territory. Many accounts, which have been inactive for several years, have suddenly felt the need to post several hundred, even several thousand tweets with pornographic tendencies in a few hours.
Source : The Verge
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