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Chinese censorship invades the U.S. via WeChat
Jeanne Whalen, The Washington Post
Jan. 7, 2021
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1of3Zhou Fengsuo, an organizer in the Tiananmen Square protests who came to the United States in 1995, supports the Trump administration s effort to ban the app WeChat.photo for The Washington Post by Bryan Anselm.Show MoreShow Less
2of3Zhou Fengsuo s colleague, Ouyang Ruoyu, left, has also had his posts censored on the app WeChat and supports a U.S. ban.photo for The Washington Post by Bryan Anselm.Show MoreShow Less
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NEWARK, N.J. - Zhou Fengsuo, a leader of the 1989 Tiananmen Square uprising, hoped to leave Chinese censorship behind when he fled to the United States and became a U.S. citizen. But Chinese censors have caught up with him, through the social-networking service WeChat.
Li Wenliang’s death had only been announced a few hours earlier, but Warming High-Tech was already on the case. The company had been monitoring online mentions of the COVID-whistleblower’s name in the several days since police had detained and punished him for “spreading rumors.” Now, news of his deteriorating condition, and eventual passing, had triggered a deluge of sorrow and outrage online adorned with candle emojis, photos of farewell wishes scrawled into the snow, and a final image of the 34-year-old ophthalmologist as he lay in his hospital bed in Wuhan.
It was February 7, 2020, and Warming High-Tech’s “Word Emotion Internet Intelligence Research Institute” swung into action, drafting a “Special Report on Major Internet Sentiment” for “relevant central authorities.” Warming’s report explained that online discussions of Li had “flooded” the Internet; the public’s “grief and indignation” would demand an urgent response from government officials