The U.S.-China Trade War and #MeToo Were Among the Most Censored Topics on China’s WeChat, Report Finds
What do the U.S.-China trade war, Huawei’s Meng Wanzhou and the world’s first alleged gene-edited baby have in common? They’re all controversial subjects in China, and were among the most censored topics last year on the country’s ubiquitous social media app, WeChat, according to new research.
Last year, WeChatscope, a research project at the University of Hong Kong, tracked more than 4,000 public accounts covering daily news on WeChat. Of the 1.04 million articles reviewed, 11,000 were removed, the researchers revealed earlier this week.
Associate professor King-wa Fu, who leads the project at the university’s Journalism and Media Studies Center, said Sino-U.S. relations were among the most censored topics last year.
“There were disputes regarding ZTE and Huawei, multiple rounds of trade negotiations, and finally, the arrest of Huawei CTO, Meng Wanzhou, at the end of 2018,” he told TIME.
The researchers’ list of the ten most controversial topics also revealed that the #MeToo hasht..