China’s censors have been overwhelmed as they try to wipe images of blank sheets of white paper used by protesters in a growing number of demonstrations against President Xi Jinping’s zero-Covid policy from the internet, the media reported.
The country is currently facing its largest anti-government protests since the Tiananmen Square massacre, with protesters in at least seven cities holding up blank sheets of paper to symbolise censorship, the Daily Mail reported.
Protesters have taken to the streets of Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan and Nanjing in an unprecedented wave of dissent to demonstrate against President Xi, his oppressive Covid crackdowns and increasingly authoritarian rule, Daily Mail reported.
Online discussions and news coverage of the demonstrations have now been banned, with security forces deployed to the streets of the country’s major cities last night.
All signs of the blank sheets of paper have also been erased, including pictures and videos of packs of white paper, The Telegraph reports.
But social media users on the platforms Weibo and WeChat have taken matter into their own hands by posting their own images of the blank sheets.
It includes some using filters while taking videos of videos to evade the government’s artificial intelligence.
Meanwhile, Xi has yet to even acknowledge the marches but few expect him to back down.
Alan Mendoza on Monday warned MailOnline that Beijing ‘will crack down hard and punish the protesters severely’ as state media ran editorials defending zero-Covid.
It comes after an apartment fire in the city of Urumqi killed at least 10 and sparked the protests amid claims that China’s strict lockdown measures hampered rescue efforts and the ability of residents to escape.
Beijing denies this was the case, and has blamed ‘forces with ulterior motives’ for linking the two, Daily Mail reported.
Chinese bots flood Twitter with porn to hide posts about violent protests
As porn and spam accounts flourish amid violent protests in China over its zero-Covid policy, reports have surfaced that these are Chinese bots which are swamping Twitter with sexually-explicit content to stop the spread of news about the massive protests against President Xi Jinping.
Earlier, searches for major Chinese cities resulted in ads for escorts/ porn/ gambling as protests turned violent.
Stanford University’s Mengyu Dong shared images on Twitter of some of the dubious “escort ads”, which she said “make it more difficult for Chinese users to access information about the mass protests,” reports New York Post.
“Some of these acts have been dormant for years, only to become active a after protests broke out in China,” she posted.
The use of spam to stop the spread of damaging information is a “known problem” within Twitter, as was seen when Elon Musk took over the micro-blogging platform.
The Chinese state media has made no mention of the ongoing protests.
Earlier, as China faced unprecedented protests over its tough zero-Covid policy, searching for any major Chinese city on Twitter resulted in span tweets showing porn and gambling content.
According to a China-focused data analyst, “search for Beijing/ Shanghai/ other cities in Chinese on Twitter and you’ll mostly see ads for escorts/porn/gambling, drowning out legitimate search results”.
The analyst said in a Twitter thread that there has been a “significant” uptick in these spam tweets over the last three days, as a wave of protests erupted across major Chinese cities.
Tanks on streets of China rekindles fears of Tiananmen Square
Several military tanks have rolled through the streets of China as Chinese officials ramp up their crackdown against demonstrators who are protesting against Xi Jinpings disastrous zero-Covid policy, sccording to a media report.
A video shows a steady stream of tanks trundling through the eastern city of Xuzhou on Monday night, Daily Mail reported.
The footage will rekindle memories of the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989, when hundreds – if not thousands – of Chinese protesters were killed by soldiers in tanks, the report said.
Xi Jinping’s Communist Party officials have ramped up their crackdown on demonstrators, with police officers seen wrestling with protesters before dragging them away.
A dramatic video shows a woman screaming as she is arrested by six police officers and dragged away from a main square in Hangzhou, as Chinese officials sought to crack down on protesters in the city.
A man is seen trying to stop the police from arresting the woman by shouting at them, but two officials were seen running at the protester and screaming at him to get back, Daily Mail reported.
Footage also shows a huge crowd of protesters trying to stop a group of police officers from arresting two men in Hangzhou. But the officers were seen wrestling with the protesters and dragging the two demonstrators away while holding the scruff of their collars.
While police officers were dragging protesters away on Monday night, military tanks rolled through the streets of Xuzhou.
Locals questioned whether the tanks were heading to Shanghai, but others said it was possible the tanks were merely returning from military manoeuvres.
Hundreds of protesters have taken to the streets since the weekend in protest against China’s harsh zero-Covid policy.
They mark the largest anti-government demonstrations China has seen since the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989, Daily Mail reported.
Chinese protesters say police seeking them out
People in China who attended weekend protests against Covid restrictions say they have been contacted by police, as authorities begin clamping down, according to a media report.
Several people in Beijing said police had called demanding information about their whereabouts, BBC reported.
It is unclear how police might have discovered their identities.
On Tuesday, officials renewed a promise to speed up efforts to vaccinate older people. Vaccination rates among elderly people are relatively low.
China has recorded record numbers of new cases in recent days.
Over the weekend, thousands in China took to the streets demanding an end to Covid lockdowns – with some even making rare calls for President Xi Jinping to stand down, BBC reported.
But on Monday, planned protests in Beijing did not happen after officers surrounded the assembly point. In Shanghai, large barriers were erected along the main protest route and police made several arrests.
The demonstrations began after a fire in a high-rise block in Urumqi, western China, killed 10 people on Thursday. Many Chinese believe Covid restrictions contributed to the deaths, although the authorities deny this.
Asked whether the protests would prompt a change to zero-Covid rules, an official said China would continue to “fine tune and modify” its measures.
“We are going to maintain and control the negative impact to people’s livelihoods and lives,” said Mi Feng, a National Health Commission spokesman, at a press conference.
On Tuesday morning, police could be seen in both Beijing and Shanghai patrolling areas where some groups on the Telegram messaging app had suggested people should gather again, BBC reported.
A small protest in the southern city of Hangzhou on Monday night was also quickly stopped with people swiftly arrested.
Reports also say that police were stopping people and searching their phones to check if they had virtual private networks (VPNs) set up, as well as apps such as Telegram and Twitter which are blocked in China, BBC reported.
