People in China are venting out their frustration over the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) enforcing new internet and cyberspace laws to censor content that goes against the party’s image.
There were huge protests in China in late November and early December this year. The Chinese Cyberspace Administration has issued regulations for the mobile and app makers to stop updating or improving apps that can help in uploading and downloading data or pictures which creates problems for the Chinese regime, according to Voices Against Autocracy (VOA) a private, non-governmental news organisation based in Vienna, Austria.
The VOA report by Andy Meier quoted a Hong Kong-based news outlet to state that the new law is an updated and approved version of the 2017 Regulations on the Administration of Internet Post Comment Services.
Internet censorship and control is not new to China, which has imposed strict guidelines since the year 2000 called the Great Firewall. The country’s Ministry of Public Security launched the Golden Shield Project–a labyrinthine mechanism of censorship and surveillance aimed at restricting contents and identifying and locating individuals, according to Meier’s report in VOA.
The posts on the internet are in fact a literal vent out of the public against the regime. People in China took their frustration with the Zero Covid Policy and harsh lockdowns over to the internet, using live streaming sites and social media as a way of showing their protest.
This resulted in many posts that were found inadequate by the government to be forcefully removed and people were arrested and punished for their acts of dissent, according to Meier’s analysis.
Many of these posts shared videos and articles where people under lockdown were denied medical help or had to go without food and water for several days. Some of these posts showed people committing suicide by jumping off their buildings. This gave a boost to anti-Xi sentiments in the general public, VOA reported.
There is fear among the Chinese authorities that there may be more protests and violence because of the uncertainty in the Chinese market, economic slowdown and employment problems in the country.
Despite the existence of such censorship mechanisms, Chinese youth saw the internet as a channel for new thinking. Chinese citizens could go online to expose government corruption and criticise leaders. Online discussions were somewhat free and open, and young users were especially eager to learn and debate big ideas about the political system and how China should be governed. But this has changed since Xi Jinping became the Chinese Communist Party General Secretary and President of the country, according to Meier.
And from time to time China has brought these kinds of regulations for censorship of cyberspace and has been punishing people who do not accept or align themselves with the new rules of their regime.
Although the protests in China against the regime point out that the public is smart and frustrated against the CCP and will not stop expressing themselves and showing their discontent.