Report: Chinese social platforms were censoring COVID-19 discussion since outbreak began

A shocking report has found that Chinese social platforms, including WeChat and YY have been censoring discussion of the COVID-19 since the very beginning of the coronavirus outbreak in 2019.  

The University of Toronto's research group, Citizen Lab, has been studying censorship related to the virus outbreak on Chinese platforms, including Tencent-owned WeChat and live-streaming site YY. Based on the group's findings, on 31 December 2019, YY began to censor keywords related to the outbreak, the day after Chinese ophthalmologist Li Wenliang exposed suspected COVID-19 cases to his colleagues in a WeChat group. 

YY was found to have added 45 keywords to its blacklist on 31 December 2019, all of which made reference to the, at the time unknown, virus that displayed symptoms similar to SARS. Among the 45 censored keywords related to the COVID-19 outbreak, 40 were in simplified Chinese and five in traditional Chinese. 

According to the report, these keywords include descriptions of the flu-like pneumonia disease, references to the name of the location considered to be the source of the novel virus, local government agencies in Wuhan, and discussions of the similarity between the outbreak in Wuhan and SARS. The report cited several examples, including "武汉不明肺炎" (Unknown Wuhan pneumonia), "武汉海鲜市场" (Wuhan seafood market), "沙士变异" (SARS variation), and "爆發sars疫情" (SARS outbreak in Wuhan), to name a few. 

However, on 10 February 2020, the platform removed five of the 45 keywords from the banned list, including "病毒感染" (Virus-infected), "疫情事件" (Epidemic), "肺炎病人" (Pneumonia patient), "武汉流行肺炎" (Wuhan pneumonia epidemic), and 非典性肺炎 (Atypical pneumonia). Though Citizen Lab was unsure of the reasoning behind the removal of these keywords, the report suggested that these specific keywords had a lower average keyword length (4.29) than the remaining 40 (5.9), implying that it was because the words were shorter and broader in meaning. If blacklisted keywords were overly broad, there would have been a substantial degradation in user experiences by filtering out what the platform would deem nonsensitive conversations about the COVID-19 outbreak.

Meanwhile, on WeChat, between January and February 2020, a wide range of content related to COVID-19 has been censored on the platform, including criticism towards the Chinese government, speculative and factual information related to the epidemic, and neutral references to Chinese government efforts to handle the outbreak that were reported on state media.

The report said between 1 January and 15 February 2020, 516 censored keyword combinations in its scripted WeChat group chat were found to be directly related to COVID-19. 

Censored keyword combinations covered a wide range of topics, including discussions of central leaders’ responses to the outbreak, critical and neutral references to government policies on handling the epidemic, responses to the outbreak in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau, speculative and factual information on the disease, references to Li Wenliang, and collective action.

87% of the keyword combinations reference the Chinese Communist Party's general secretary Xi Jinping. Other remaining keyword combinations other key figures in the Chinese government including premier Li Keqiang, vice-premier Sun Chunlan, and the Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China as a collective agency. Examples of censored keyword combinations include "习近平到武汉" (Xi Jinping goes to Wuhan), "某人+亲自" (Someone + Himself, as “someone” is a code referencing Xi Jinping), and 到+雷神山+总书记 (Goes to + Leishen shan (hospital) + (CCP) General Secretary). 

In addition, there were 99 keyword combinations about COVID-19 in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau. Examples related to Hong Kong include "發起罷工+五大訴求+員工陣線" (Initiated strike + Five demands + (Hospital Authority) Employees Alliance), "香港+林鄭+呼籲+病毒" (Hong Kong + Carrie Lam + Appeal + Virus), and 香港+港府+衞生防護+港人 (Hong Kong + Hong Kong government + Health prevention + Hong Kong people).

In the report's conclusion, Citizen Lab said information on COVID-19 was being tightly controlled on Chinese social media. Though the research group said it did not know what specific directives on COVID-19 might have been sent down from the government to social media companies, it suggested that companies received official guidance on how to handle it as early as December 2019 when the spread of the disease was first made public. Other than official guidance, in China, social media platforms are held liable for content on their platforms. Companies are expected to invest in technology and personnel to carry out content censorship based on government regulations. 

Lastly, the report suggested that the roles and responsibilities that private companies have in China to manage their platforms could explain the censorship of neutral references and factual information, resulting in companies over-censoring to avoid official reprimands for failing to prevent the distribution of “harmful information” including “inappropriate comments and descriptions of natural disasters and large-scale incidents.”

As a platform, it is possible this report could have giant ramifications. Though users on Chinese social platforms have long-since figured out methods to duck and dodge censors and grown used to the government's tight grip on information, the fact this blackout related to such a massive health crisis changes things. The reputation of the site may hang on whether or not users reject or accept the likely claims WeChat will make that these stringent censorship measures were undertaken to curtail disinformation. If netizens refuse to swallow that story or any other PR spin, WeChat and YY may suffer their own outbreak of negative brand attention. 

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