China’s government has begun a crackdown against gay content on China’s most popular social networking site, Sina Weibo. Weibo is a Chinese government-approved version of Twitter, and is popular among China’s youth. China has never been pro-free speech, and actually bans Twitter. The government, seeking to further control and censor a populace that is increasingly becoming pro-LGBTQ, has decided to step in and enforce their own “moral” guidelines. Weibo does what the Chinese government requests. Now they’re against positive depictions of homosexuality, and are even banning it at the same time as violent imagery, falsely associating the two.
Chinese citizens are posting “I am gay” to protest the new rules, but Weibo removes their posts.
China’s Influence Over Weibo
China’s Communist Party is working to remove all content from the Chinese version of the internet that supposedly invalidates its “core values of socialism.” Of course, homophobia, suppression of free speech, and bigotry have nothing to do with socialism. However, they have everything to do with maintaining control over the populace in a world that is continually becoming more interconnected.
As of this weekend, Weibo has already had to remove over 56,243 posts from those protesting the new anti-gay rules. The original post announcing the new rules had over 24,000 comments with over 110,000 forwards (think retweets). Pornography, manga (Japanese serialized comics), videos promoting or containing violence, and anything related to homosexuality have been newly banned. Chinese users aren’t happy.
Via LottD, Weibo
China’s Attacks on LGBTQ People
Though China decriminalized homosexuality in 1997, many citizens still hold anti-gay views. However, for them, it’s more about image and heritage than “religious” reasons. The government’s targeting of LGBTQ people gives the government a scapegoat allowing them to vilify “others,” distracting from their own human rights violations. China’s citizens were increasingly becoming more pro-LGBTQ, but China’s crackdown against LGBTQ inclusive speech and media could change that. LGBTQ people are often the first target for oppressive and authoritarian governments, and a favorite target of dictators, totalitarian regimes, and Republicans (yes, that was almost a joke).
Weibo, like many social networks, specifically microblogging sites, tends to skew towards a younger and more open-minded audience. Still, in China, there’s no safe place with free speech or free people, and the government’s latest crackdown on Weibo is a clear reminder of that.
Maybe one day LGBTQ people won’t be the targets of oppressive regimes.
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