{"id":633,"date":"2017-07-20T15:17:15","date_gmt":"2017-07-20T13:17:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beatricemartini.it\/blog\/?p=633"},"modified":"2017-07-21T22:12:08","modified_gmt":"2017-07-21T20:12:08","slug":"censoring-dissent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beatricemartini.it\/blog\/censoring-dissent\/","title":{"rendered":"Censoring dissent. How the mourning over activist Liu Xiaobo\u2019s death is being erased from the internet"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Liu Xiao Bo<\/em><\/a> \u2013 Ai Weiwei<\/small><\/p>\n

On July 13 2017, activist, writer and Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo passed away in government custody.<\/p>\n

He advocated for non-violent action, participated in the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests, and helped to draft and gather support for Charter 08<\/a>, a call for peaceful political reform and an end to one-party rule. He spent almost a quarter of his life behind bars in China for advocating human rights and democracy.<\/p>\n

Once the news of his death became public, one related phenomenon started to be reported. References to Liu Xiaobo, his work, and his passing were being censored on social media in China more harshly than ever before.<\/p>\n

Social media platforms in China regularly censor content related to Liu Xiaobo and his legacy. But since his death, even just typing his name in a message or trying to share an image of him in a one-to-one chat has become enough to get the message blocked.<\/p>\n

In response to this violation of freedom of expression, a growing number of internet censorship researchers, journalists, and human rights activists has been publishing articles and studies attempting to document the nature and extent of the censorship measures adopted to silence communications about the dissident\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

This post presents a collection of reports and analysis published on the topic to date. They are organized in chronological order to best follow through subsequent updates as they were made public.<\/p>\n

Selected readings<\/h3>\n

This reading list aims to serve as a resource to gather information about the internet censorship measures employed following Liu Xiaobo\u2019s passing, to the extend of what has been reported\u00a0so far.<\/p>\n

The selection of the articles was guided by the intention to represent the perspectives of as many actors involved as possible. Not much has been disclosed by government and corporations of course. However, internet users, independent reporters, and technology researchers have been documenting and sharing their findings and analysis online, and this is the wealth of knowledge that this list wants to call attention to.<\/p>\n

How Chinese internet users got round censors to mourn Liu Xiaobo<\/a> \u2013 Eva Li, South China Morning Post
\n\u201cCensors appear to have stepped up their surveillance and cast a wider net to catch posts with indirect references Liu as news of his death spread.<\/em>
\n The most recent 200 Weibo posts deleted on Weibo were all related to Liu\u2019s death on Friday morning, according to Weiboscope, a University of Hong Kong project that tracks censorship on the social media platform.<\/em>
\n None of the deleted tweets contained Liu\u2019s name, with many referring to the activist simply as \u201chim\u201d.<\/em>
\n Nearly a 10th of the censored posts after the announcement of Liu\u2019s death on Thursday night contained the Chinese words for \u201crain\u201d and \u201cstorm\u201d.<\/em>
\n Some of the messages trying to circumvent censorship by adding text inside pictures were also blocked.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

China\u2019s censors are making sure the country doesn\u2019t remember human rights activist Liu Xiaobo<\/a> \u2013 Echo Huang, Quartz
\n\u201cSince last night, Weibo has also indicated that creating a post with a candle emoji or \u201cRIP\u201d\u2014even if Liu isn\u2019t mentioned\u2014is a \u201cviolation of laws and regulations.\u201d […]<\/em>
\n Other keywords translating to \u201ccompassion release,\u201d \u201clate-stage liver cancer,\u201d \u201cLiaoning prison,\u201d and \u201can empty chair\u201d are among the only still available (so far) for news about Liu. \u201cEmpty chair\u201d refers to Liu\u2019s absence at the 2010 Nobel Prize award ceremony.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Chinese citizens evade internet censors to remember Liu Xiaobo<\/a> \u2013 Javier C. Hern\u00e1ndez, The New York Times<\/p>\n

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\nThe patient of China<\/a><\/em>, an artwork by political artist Badiucao, portraying Liu Xiaobo and his wife, Liu Xia.<\/small><\/p>\n

Despite censorship, netizens remember Liu Xiaobo<\/a> \u2013 Josh Rudolph, China Digital Times
\n\u201cAmong the terms blocked from Weibo search results:<\/em><\/p>\n