Major social media Douyin Chinese have taken down posts containing jokes and misinformation about Ukraine.
According to South China Morning Post, China’s major social media platforms say they are working to curb misinformation and inappropriate content, as internet users in the country access WeChat, Douyin, and apps Another popular use to discuss military Russian-Ukrainian
“Social media users took this opportunity to post objectionable information about news,” Tencent Holdings’ popular messaging app WeChat wrote on its official account on Feb.
The above post was later shared by a unit of the Cyberspace Administration of China. Examples of inappropriate content cited by WeChat included misinformation claiming that students could receive course credit for enlisting to fight in Ukraine, as well as “vulgar” content calling for “subordinates”. beautiful Ukrainian women” to China.
Douyin, ByteDance’s mainland version of TikTok, said it processed 6,400 videos and suspended 1,620 live streams for violating the platform’s rules. The move is part of a targeted censorship campaign aimed at users who “joke news events”. Videos, such as those calling for images of ” Ukrainian, spread inappropriate values and damaged the atmosphere of the platform, Douyin said on Tuesday.
Weibo on February 25 said it had temporarily banned or locked 105 accounts related to “abusive and incitement” content. WeChat, Douyin, and Weibo all urge users to maintain “objectivity and reason”, as well as a “clean and upright atmosphere” when discussing international events.
As Russian troops entered Ukraine, hashtags such as “why Russia conducts military operation in Ukraine” and “Russian and Ukrainian forces exchange firepower” quickly became popular topics on Weibo, Douyin, attracting tens of millions of views and comments.
Comments from some male users saying they could “take care” of the refugee Ukrainian women prompted widespread criticism. Faced with this situation, a Weibo user claiming to be a Chinese student in Ukraine wrote in a post shared by tens of thousands of people on social media: “Please don’t mock the war. While you are drinking milk tea and sending jokes at home, it is we, compatriots living in war zones, who are paying the price for your actions.”
In the face of growing attention on the mainland, Ukraine and Russia are both rushing to connect with Chinese social media. The Ukrainian embassy in Beijing on February 22 posted on Weibo, a Chinese translation, a statement from Kyiv, condemning Russian President Vladimir Putin’s declaration of Donestsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine as “independent regions”. This post quickly became one of the top search topics on the platform, garnering 3 million searches and almost 800,000 likes in a single day.
This week, the Russian embassy’s Weibo account, which has more than 413,000 followers, nearly 16 times more than the Ukrainian embassy, pinned to the top of the page a post about Putin signing a decree recognizing Ukraine’s independence. Donetsk and Luhansk.