In an attempt to crack down on dissent ahead of the Winter Olympics, China reportedly restricted access to the messaging and social media apps of several human rights activists and some academics.
AFP news agency spoke to some people who had restricted access to their WeChat messaging app accounts in recent weeks.
Eight people said that since early December they had not been able to fully use their accounts and had been forced to re-register.
“This WeChat account shutdown storm is too strong and unprecedented,” veteran reporter Gao Yu, whose account had features such as chat group messaging permanently disabled for the first time on May 20, quoted AFP. December.
Beijing-based writer Zhang Yihe said her WeChat group chat and Moments features – similar to Facebook’s Wall or Instagram Stories – were restricted on January 8.
Guo Yuhua, a professor of sociology at Tsinghua University, confirmed that his account was permanently blocked on the same day, while prominent jurist He Weifang said he encountered the same on January 9.
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An expert said the Chinese government wants to make sure people don’t point out flaws in the “perfect Winter Olympics”.
The government now wants to make sure people don’t cross the line online to encroach on the facade of a perfect Winter Olympics,” Yaqiu Wang, senior China researcher at Human Rights Watch, told AFP.
The latest restrictions came as Chinese authorities detained two prominent human rights activists.
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Free speech advocate Yang Maodong was formally arrested in the southern Guangzhou on suspicion of inciting subversion on January 12, two days after his wife died of cancer in the United States. , reported the Wall Street Journal citing his sister.
Yang, who writes under the pen name Guo Feixiong, has been banned from leaving China for a year.
It is not the first time that China has cracked down on dissidents ahead of a major event.
During the 2008 Summer Olympics, Beijing pressured dissidents and activists, although there was room for some critics.
(With agency contributions)
