China Censoring of Coronavirus
During a time in which many would think that spreading of information would benefit everyone China has once again done just the opposite. Recently the Coronavirus has been all over the news, fears of how deadly it can be, how to contain it, and how countries are taking precautions against it. Although many know that the outbreak of Coronavirus started in China not many know that China knew of it before hand and censored information about the Coronavirus so word couldn't get out.
WeChat is a popular app used in China to communicate. Doctors often use it in order to share information. Research shows that WeChat was being censored before officials acknowledged the Coronavirus. The censorship of this news has put everyone at risk. If news of this virus got out sooner people could've been quarantined much sooner which would have greatly reduced the spreading of this virus.
Wechat wasn't the only platform to have censorship. Another platform is YY which had 61 key words that were censored around the beginning of the outbreak. One of such keywords are "SARS outbreak in Wuhan".
As of right now it is unknown whether the Chinese government had the Coronavirus censored or if it was Tencent and other companies avoiding reprimands from the Government. Both reasons behind the censorship lead back to China and their oppressiveness on the media.
Not only news of the virus but also phrases revolving around one of the doctors who first reported on the Virus, Dr. Li Wenliang, was also censored.
Of course this type of censorship is par for the course. Sadly China will not stop censoring the news anytime soon. China's censorship has made this a worse outbreak than it could have been. Due to the lack of information flowing not only were the people of China uninformed when they needed to be but the rest of the world was as well.
Sources
Coronavirus: Chinese app WeChat censored virus content since 1 Jan. (2020, March 4). Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-51732042
Ruan, L., Knockel, J., & Crete-Nishihata, M. (2020, March 4). Censored Contagion: How Information on the Coronavirus is Managed on Chinese Social Media. Retrieved from https://citizenlab.ca/2020/03/censored-contagion-how-information-on-the-coronavirus-is-managed-on-chinese-social-media/
Coronavirus: Chinese app WeChat censored virus content since 1 Jan. (2020, March 4). Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-51732042
Ruan, L., Knockel, J., & Crete-Nishihata, M. (2020, March 4). Censored Contagion: How Information on the Coronavirus is Managed on Chinese Social Media. Retrieved from https://citizenlab.ca/2020/03/censored-contagion-how-information-on-the-coronavirus-is-managed-on-chinese-social-media/
No comments:
Post a Comment