Chinese authorities are clamping down on videos showing poverty in the country on social media platforms, a report claimed. Videos showing “sadness” because of economic situation were removed from social media in a move by Xi Jinping.
New York Times reported the Cyberspace Administration of China's March announcement in which they said that anyone who publishes videos or posts “deliberately manipulate sadness, incite polarization, create harmful information that damages the image of the Party and the government, and disrupts economic and social development” will be punished. With this, showing people facing economic disparity or difficulty will be a criminal offence in China.
This comes as a content creator named Hu interviewed a 78-year-old Chinese widow in the southwestern city of Chengdu. In the video, the woman was seen struggling to buy rice as she cried. The video was later removed from social media and Hu’s account was permanently banned from the two biggest video platforms in China, the report claimed.
A thread on Zhihu, China's version of Quora, was also censored where people were seen discussing poverty in China, it added, with the aim of ensuring that the reputation of Xi Jinping's Communist Party of China is not affected.
{{/usCountry}}A thread on Zhihu, China's version of Quora, was also censored where people were seen discussing poverty in China, it added, with the aim of ensuring that the reputation of Xi Jinping's Communist Party of China is not affected.
{{/usCountry}}The party has promoted its poverty elimination campaign as Xi Jinping launched the “common prosperity” programme in 2021 which celebrated China’s “comprehensive victory in the battle against poverty.”