China penalizes users for ‘liking’ posts after zero-Covid protests

• China’s internet police is tightening up cyberspace control. “Likes” of public posts, along with other kinds of comments, must be monitored.
• Internet users are collecting screenshots of protest-related content in order to preserve it.
• The new regulations take effect on December 15.

Internet users in China will soon be penalized for like anything that is judged unlawful or damaging, raising concerns that the country may soon exert unprecedented control over social media.

China’s internet police is tightening up cyberspace control as the government cracks down more on online dissent and popular discontent with the nation’s onerous Covid restrictions grows.

The new regulations, which are a part of a new set of guidelines released by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) earlier this month, take effect on December 15.

The Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission, which is led by President Xi Jinping, is where the CAC is housed.

The new regulations, which have recently drawn notice on social media, will go into force just weeks after a nationwide outpouring of unheard-of rage began.

Over the weekend, hundreds of protesters from Beijing to Shanghai rallied in more than a dozen cities, demanding an end to the nation’s oppressive Covid regulations and appealing for political liberties.

While authorities are frantically trying to purge the internet of opposition, internet users are collecting screenshots of protest-related content in order to preserve it and employing coded references in messages to get past censors.

The rule is an updated version of one that was first released in 2017. It declares for the first time that “likes” of public posts, along with other kinds of comments, must be monitored.

Every comment posted by a public account must also be carefully reviewed.

However, the rules did not provide any specifics regarding the types of content that would be considered unlawful or harmful.

“Liking something that is illegal shows that there is popular support for the issue being raised. Too many likes ‘can start a prairie fire,’” said David Zweig, professor emeritus at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, referring to a Chinese expression about how a single spark can start a far larger blaze.

“The threats to the [Chinese Communist Party] come from an ability to communicate across cities. The authorities must have been really spooked when so many people in so many cities came out at the same time,” he added.

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