{"id":5501,"date":"2022-10-17T10:53:50","date_gmt":"2022-10-17T10:53:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/?p=5501"},"modified":"2022-10-21T07:04:10","modified_gmt":"2022-10-21T07:04:10","slug":"brutality-maoism-goes-big-tech-wechat-lifetime-ban-over-photo-to-force-self-censorship-ccp-cuts-peoples-connections-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/?p=5501","title":{"rendered":"Brutality! Maoism Goes Big Tech! WeChat Lifetime Ban Over Photo, To Force Self Censorship &#8211; CCP Cuts People&#8217;s Connections Off"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><iframe class=\"rumble\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/rumble.com\/embed\/v1me1u4\/?pub=24ns9\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The CCP is now causing extreme isolation for people who do not obey them, and this is a warning for Americans who have romanticized the economic system called Communism- or who have believed naively that the Chinese Communist Party are just some friendly competition for Americans and we should allow them into our Tech. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They are not.  They are virtual dominant and they treat their own people horribly. When they can control the digital needs of humans, they use the digital to harm people. We covered the story of the CCP controlling digital currency through PAY PAL. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-petersantilli-com wp-block-embed-petersantilli-com\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"OZWotWUaIk\"><a href=\"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/?p=5433\">PayPal To Punish Anti-Communist Activists In Hong Kong, Remember Jimmy Lai&#8217;s Warning For USA<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"&#8220;PayPal To Punish Anti-Communist Activists In Hong Kong, Remember Jimmy Lai&#8217;s Warning For USA&#8221; &#8212; PeterSantilli.com\" src=\"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/?p=5433&#038;embed=true#?secret=noRxUpdb9h#?secret=OZWotWUaIk\" data-secret=\"OZWotWUaIk\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Here is more proof. Now they control the social life of people.  How romantic is this? The following report is from two years ago- so assume WeChat is even more essential now. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is how essential WeChat is to the Chinese people.  &#8220;It is an essential ap in China, like water and electricty.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/GXNszFai28Q?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Banning a Chinese person from the Ap, &#8216;We Chat&#8217; is the Equivalent of cutting someone&#8217;s hand off, according to dissidents under the brutal CCP regime, meant to cause self-censorship among the people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">A lifetime ban for WeChat users who shared picture of Beijing protest. With the ubiquity of WeChat in daily life in China, this punishment is the digital equivalent of cutting an offender\u2019s hand off. Hard to imagine a more effective tool to enforce self-censorship. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/oZwBocgooj\">https:\/\/t.co\/oZwBocgooj<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Antony Dapiran (@antd) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/antd\/status\/1581439174800211968?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 16, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Liza Lin, China correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, reported on the situation with her own investigation, she posted the following: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WSJ\">@WSJ<\/a> ran checks on China&#8217;s most popular social media platforms in the weeks before the Party Congress, searching for the names of Chinese leader Xi, the standing committee members and its 31 provincial and region Party chiefs. Here&#8217;s what we found:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We analysed Douyin (China&#8217;s TikTok), Weibo, Baidu&#8217;s online forum Tieba, the Quora-like Zhihu (\u77e5\u4e4e\uff09and searched for WeChat blogs using the Sogou search tool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In his 10 years in power, Xi presided over a boom in censorship that has muzzled online debate in entirely new ways. Influencers with dissenting views silenced, new laws limit online speech, and companies are fined for not policing web content. Still, the results were a shock. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Weibo (1): Weibo doesn&#8217;t allow users without a Chinese cellphone number (no overseas users) to even search for Xi Jinping&#8217;s name in the app. You need to register and log-in with a Chinese number (linked to your ID) to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Results are almost all articles or videos in some way linked to state media or government agencies. No surprise.. EXCEPT, the comments are also hidden from view&#8230; this post has 366 comments but only 3 are viewable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>eibo (3): Other posts on state media mentioning Xi Jinping or Li Keqiang don&#8217;t even bother. They&#8217;ve shut off the comment function or hide them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When you try and search on Baidu&#8217;s online forum Tieba for Chinese President Xi Jinping, its a blank slate. Up pops a message: \u62b1\u6b49\uff0c\u6839\u636e\u76f8\u5173\u6cd5\u5f8b\u6cd5\u89c4\u548c\u653f\u7b56\uff0c\u76f8\u5173\u7ed3\u679c\u4e0d\u4e88\u5c55\u73b0\u3002&#8221;Sorry, according to related laws and policies, the results cannot be shown.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Baidu Tieba: Chinese netizens get the same reply when they search for anyone else on the Standing Committee: Li Keqiang, Han Zheng, Li Zhanshu, Wang Yang, Wang Huning, Zhao Leji. Other politicians with similar levels of censorship include Xinjiang Party chief \u9a6c\u5174\u745e.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Baidu Tieba: The true irony is that Chinese internet users can discuss U.S. politicians such as President Biden much more freely. Compare the zero results of Chinese leader Xi to 184,000 comments on Biden, with opinions ranging from respect to disgust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ame scenario when it came to Sogou&#8217;s WeChat search portal (a common way to browse WeChat blog posts). Searching \u2018Yang Jiechi,&#8217; China&#8217;s pointman on foreign affairs, returned the result: \u5440!\u6ca1\u6709\u627e\u5230\u76f8\u5173\u7684\u5fae\u4fe1\u516c\u4f17\u53f7\u6587\u7ae0 (Ya! No related official WeChat posts found). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> Looking for Yang Jiechi&#8217;s U.S. counterpart Antony Blinken deliver 1,000 WeChat posts. Yang = 0 posts. Blinken = 1,000. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/censorship?src=hashtag_click\">#censorship<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ouyin takes 1st prize for censorship, boot-licking. For Xi, you only find videos from state\/Party media. Lots of CCTV discussing Xi\u2019s trips to the hinterland. I found this gem of an account: \u201cForeign Affairs Thinktank\u201d with \u201cgolden thoughts from Xi.\u201d 1 mln followers\u2026 hmmm. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>eep in mind Douyin\u2019s global counterpart TikTok, run by the same parent company Bytedance, is filled with user-generated memes and spoofs of leaders such as Biden and Putin. No such thing in China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even searches for public sentiment about Mr. Xi\u2019s wife, Peng Liyuan, a famous folk singer in her own right, yield nothing on most platforms. A close analogy would be Google censoring results for Melania Trump or Michelle Obama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wechat is the worst censorship offender: and the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/sitongbridge?src=hashtag_click\">#sitongbridge<\/a> incident is the most recent example. Large numbers of Chinese lost access to the ubitquitous chat messaging app after sharing a photo of a rare protest act in Beijing ahead of the Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I spoke to WeChat users who were banned forever from their account as they had shared this picture. In the past, Wechat would suspend you for a day or a week over politically sensitive topics, but not this time. With this incident, it was a complete ban for all who shared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I turned to Telegram to chat with one user to avoid being surveilled. But after a few mins, the state interference made it almost impossible to chat. They didn&#8217;t cut my call directly but made the line so broken you heard bits and bobs, and you constantly heard yourself echo. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In China, where independent opinion polls are almost nonexistent, social media has been a way to gauge people\u2019s opinions, even under censorship. But the online scrubbing highlights how difficult it is to figure out how popular is China\u2019s most forceful leader since Mao.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s also tough to assess support for his policies. A Zhihu post on a speech by Mr. Xi to the People\u2019s Liberation Army in which he called for \u201cthe motherland to be unified\u201d\u2014a reference to taking control of Taiwan, appeared to have attracted 219 comments. None could be viewed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Because China has blocked out a lot of foreign news websites and information sources, there is little to balance the steady stream of state-television anchors or Foreign Ministry spokespeople waxing lyrical about Mr. Xi, or footage of him being cheered by crowds on visits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read the full Twitter Thread <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/lizalinwsj\/status\/1581324876308443136\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/lizalinwsj\/status\/1581324876308443136\">HERE. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The CCP is now causing extreme isolation for people who do not obey them, and&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5529,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-stories"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/petersantilli.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/FfH-l49aUAErpac.jpg?fit=900%2C730&ssl=1",900,730,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/petersantilli.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/FfH-l49aUAErpac.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/petersantilli.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/FfH-l49aUAErpac.jpg?fit=300%2C243&ssl=1",300,243,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/petersantilli.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/FfH-l49aUAErpac.jpg?fit=640%2C519&ssl=1",640,519,true],"large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/petersantilli.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/FfH-l49aUAErpac.jpg?fit=640%2C519&ssl=1",640,519,true],"rpg_gallery_admin_thumb":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/petersantilli.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/FfH-l49aUAErpac.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1",150,150,true],"rpg_gallery_thumb":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/petersantilli.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/FfH-l49aUAErpac.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1",150,150,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/petersantilli.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/FfH-l49aUAErpac.jpg?fit=900%2C730&ssl=1",900,730,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/petersantilli.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/FfH-l49aUAErpac.jpg?fit=900%2C730&ssl=1",900,730,true],"newsphere-slider-full":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/petersantilli.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/FfH-l49aUAErpac.jpg?resize=900%2C720&ssl=1",900,720,true],"newsphere-featured":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/petersantilli.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/FfH-l49aUAErpac.jpg?fit=900%2C730&ssl=1",900,730,true],"newsphere-medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/petersantilli.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/FfH-l49aUAErpac.jpg?resize=720%2C380&ssl=1",720,380,true]},"author_info":{"info":["Peter Santilli"]},"category_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/?cat=8\" rel=\"category\">Featured Stories<\/a>","tag_info":"Featured Stories","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/petersantilli.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/FfH-l49aUAErpac.jpg?fit=900%2C730&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/plD2r-1qJ","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5501"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5501"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5749,"href":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5501\/revisions\/5749"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}