China internet: Top talking points of 2019 and how they evaded the censors

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China has probably the most tightly managed web environments on the planet, however regardless of this its 854 million web customers but once more in 2019 discovered methods to problem the federal government or discuss in regards to the points they wish to focus on.

This 12 months, China has seen a reignited #MeToo motion, younger folks have challenged unethical working hours, and the nation has united in concern towards the aggressive rollout of AI applied sciences.

However the authorities has additionally promoted its personal pursuits associated to the surroundings, the enterprise sector, and naturally, in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong

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Reuters

Within the final six months, this one matter has dominated information protection on social media platforms each inside and out of doors mainland China.

The truth is the large-scale Hong Kong protests, which attracted worldwide media consideration in early June, led to the phrase “Hong Kong” initially becoming a censored search term on 9 June. When the protests first started, the Beijing authorities censored any reference to them, however after it grew to become clear they would not go away, official media mounted a heavy media campaign to painting the demonstrations as violent with “shades of terrorism”.

Hashtags together with #SupportTheHongKongPolice and #ProtectHongKong have been aggressively rolled out by authorities media on the Chinese language social media platform Sina Weibo.

In distinction, on Twitter and Instagram, protestors used the hashtag #FightForFreedomStandWithHK and #GloryToHongKong – slogans which have subsequently turn out to be related to the demonstrations.

‘Civilised behaviours’

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AFP

Forward of China rolling out a controversial social credit score system in 2020, as a method of assessing residents’ financial and social status, one phrase has repeatedly cropped up: the necessity for extra “civilised behaviours”.

The Beijing authorities has left it to areas to find out how they implement this, and consequently, quite a lot of laws encouraging residents to be “civilised” have come into impact across the nation, however have additionally left folks scratching their heads.

In July, the japanese Chinese language metropolis of Jinan banned topless males and the “Beijing bikini”: the behavior of males exposing their bellies by rolling up their shirt.

In Might, the capital focused manspreading and eating on the subway, and japanese Nanjing has warned jaywalkers – pedestrians who cross the highway at a purple gentle – that their social credit score may very well be impacted if they failed to wait for the little green man..

Facial recognition

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AFP

China’s improvement of synthetic intelligence applied sciences has rocketed this 12 months, however on-line matters associated to the rise of facial recognition applied sciences have raised eyebrows and ignited lots of concern on-line.

Early within the 12 months, fee service Alipay extensively labored with retail shops to allow shoppers to purchase merchandise utilizing facial recognition. However by July, it introduced that it was including magnificence filters to facial scan fee gadgets, noting that almost all of shoppers weren’t snug with the know-how, and hated seeing their face to pay.

Facial recognition has been mocked for its imperfections. In Might, a safety digicam wrongly recognized a person scratching his face as taking a phone call.

And there have been a string of controversies associated to platforms being unnecessarily intrusive when gathering shoppers’ facial knowledge.

In July, a vlogger was mocked after facial filters she had used revealed her to be a much older woman. In September, an app referred to as ZAO was shut down, after it allowed customers to insert their faces rather than movie and TV characters, and sparked fraud and privacy fears.

And in November, a legislation professor sued a wildlife park, after it all of a sudden enforced facial recognition as a prerequisite for entry.

‘996’

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Late final 12 months, the time period “996” cropped up on quite a lot of social media microblogs and boards, initially by staff in China’s tech trade as a delicate technique to vent their frustrations on the extreme quantity of labor they have been anticipated to do.

The Chinese language censors wrestle to censor quantity sequences, provided that they’ll typically be innocuous. Consequently, Weibo customers have been ready to make use of the time period “996” to complain overtly that their employer was violating China’s labour legal guidelines by making them work some 72 hours per week: from 9am to 9pm, six days per week.

However the phrase has now seen expanded utilization past the tech trade, particularly amongst China’s younger, who complained that time beyond regulation has turn out to be an epidemic.

Nevertheless, a number of the nation’s best-known entrepreneurs have defended the “996” system, crediting it with enabling their companies to surpass others. These include China’s richest man, Alibaba founder Jack Ma, and fellow tech entrepreneur Richard Liu.

985,211,996,251

One other of China’s big corporations has been dragged into the quantity scandal too. The string of numbers 985,211,996,251 appears to be like like a web site tackle, but it surely’s really getting used to speak a few scandal involving a former worker of tech big Huawei.

The primary and second set of numbers seek advice from China’s prime universities, the place many tech staff will come from – 985/221 within the nation’s nationwide college rankings; 996 is the variety of hours they’re normally anticipated to work, and the 251 represents the variety of days former Huawei worker Li Hongyuan spent in police custody after a disagreement along with his employer.

Li was despatched to jail for asking for severance pay having labored 13 years for the corporate. He was accused of extortion. Prosecutors freed him in August, after discovering inadequate proof to again Huawei’s declare.

The case has tarnished the status of Huawei, regardless of the massive wave of home patriotism in direction of it following the arrest of its CFO Meng Wanzhou in Canada a 12 months in the past.

Sexual assault

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SINA WEIBO

Final 12 months, following worldwide momentum of the #MeToo motion, China noticed quite a lot of ladies making an attempt to make use of the hashtag to say their very own experiences of sexual abuse, however they have been swiftly censored on-line.

This 12 months, nonetheless, ladies in China have made it troublesome for presidency censors to filter their experiences of sexual assault, by sharing footage that they’ve covertly filmed of their very own experiences.

It has been more and more frequent, and an virtually day by day incidence in current months, for movies to seem on Sina Weibo, which rapidly go viral, of ladies being assaulted by their companions. The All-China Ladies’s Federation says that as many as 30% of China’s married ladies – some 90 million ladies – have suffered some form of domestic violence.

In November, a magnificence vlogger Yuyamika referred to as on her million of followers to be “no longer silent” on domestic violence.

And there have additionally been calls amongst pupil communities to out folks in positions of energy for abusing ladies.

In December, college students at universities in Beijing and Shanghai united on-line to element their experiences of sexual assault by the hands of their professors. This led to 2 college professors being sacked.

Recycling

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SINA WEIBO

The surroundings has turn out to be a rising matter of worldwide curiosity this 12 months, and in July, the biggest and most populous metropolis on the planet, Shanghai, took the daring transfer to implement strict new recycling regulations.

It demanded that individuals divide their waste into 4 totally different varieties, or else face hefty fines. Moreover eating places and meals supply companies have banned plastic cutlery and accommodations have banned disposable items.

The identical month, the hashtag #DividingRubbishChallenge went viral, with the federal government selling ways in which folks may bear in mind which product goes by which bin.

Social media customers throughout the nation animatedly mentioned viral songs, board video games, and even a video of a person enjoying a digital actuality garbage dividing recreation.

And there was a widespread nationwide consciousness to be extra environmentally pleasant. The official CGTN broadcaster says that 46 major Chinese cities will be following in Shanghai’s footsteps by the end of 2020.

‘Boycott…’

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DISNEY

This 12 months, there have been repeated calls – largely state-orchestrated – to boycott both people, merchandise or franchises, if they’re seen to be anti-China.

Numerous worldwide manufacturers have been slammed by Chinese language media in August, as a result of they referenced both Hong Kong, Macau or Taiwan as separate international locations or areas: including luxury brands Versace, Coach and Givenchy.

China went additional this 12 months, risking antagonising its worldwide sports activities followers by indicating that it might additionally not be tolerant of big sporting franchises. After basketball supervisor Daryl Morey tweeted his help for Hong Kong protestors in October, China outright banned NBA games on its state broadcaster.

In December, a tweet by Arsenal soccer participant Mesut Ozil additionally led to Chinese TV removing Arsenal games from its sports channels.

There have additionally been media counter campaigns abroad in retaliation to China’s cancel tradition.

In March, Indian customers used the hashtag #BoycottChineseProducts after China initially blocked a bid to designate Pakistan’s Masood Azhar, the chief of a gaggle that carried out a Kashmir suicide bombing, a terrorist.

In August, folks on Twitter used the hashtag #BoycottMulan after Chinese actress Liu Yifei expressed her support for the Hong Kong police.

Extra reporting by Yashan Zhao

BBC Monitoring studies and analyses information from TV, radio, internet and print media world wide. You’ll be able to comply with BBC Monitoring on Twitter and Facebook.

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