The Chinese government has taken a firm stance on maintaining a ‘clean and healthy’ domestic cyberspace. In September, the country’s cyberspace watchdog issued guidelines that made it clear the Weibo platforms must manage the content generated by users.
However since the Beijing 2022 Winter Games have started over 41,000 posts about the Olympics have been deleted along with 850 user accounts.
Weibo issued a statement that some users are “creating trouble” at a time when the whole country is “immersed in the strong atmosphere of the Winter Olympics”, “User accounts have attacked athletes with irony and insulting language and spread false information … we encourage internet users to watch the competition in a calm mood.”
The online firestorm started on Sunday as American-born figure skater Zhu Yi, representing Team China, fell in the women’s short program. China finished last in the team competition.
“Please don’t attack athletes for an accidental mistake,” Weibo said in its latest post on Wednesday. “Emotional words only create more pressure for athletes.”
The trending topic “Zhu Yi has fallen” had over 200 million views before the hashtag was taken down.
The situation has put a strain on the platform, which is already trying to remove content inciting violence and racial slurs. Over a billion Chinese internet users are currently commenting and blogging about the Beijing Olympics.
Weibo said in the notice it will strengthen the screening-out of bad information in relation with the Olympics. The platform also encouraged users to report to the Weibo management team about content that violate rules.
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