A St. Gallen Ph.D. student tweeted about China for a space of 10 days. It cost him three years of research work.
When Oliver Gerber* first heard that his tweets might cost him his future Ph.D., he was sitting in his old childhood bedroom. It was March 28, 2020, at 9:50 p.m. An email had appeared in Gerber's mailbox from his doctoral supervisor at the University of St. Gallen. The subject line read: «Very urgent: Complaint from China about your Twitter.»
He opened the email on his smartphone. The professor had written that she had received «angry emails from China.» Gerber was accused of spreading «neo-Nazi-like content» on Twitter. She said that was dangerous, even for her. «Ultimately, it may even turn out that I wonât be able to get a visa to China because of you. This is definitely going too far, and I would have to end our advisory relationship,» she wrote. He should «tone down his political expression immediately», she added. She had «no desire to receive emails like this because of one of my doctoral students.»