How China is censoring online discussion of the Russia-Ukraine war
China has sought to keep a diplomatic distance from the war in Ukraine, choosing to abstain in a UN vote condemning Russia's invasion.
"No-one dares to stand with Ukraine right now," wrote one person on Weibo, China's Twitter equivalent. "It's all one-sided support for Russia." China media expert Sarah Cook says: "It looks absolutely authentic to me. The source is credible and the instructions given match past patterns of media control."
Weibo said it had suspended tens of thousands of accounts and deleted large numbers of posts that "mock the situation" in Ukraine. It also announced it would add geo-location labels to posts to help with verification Doublethink Lab, which has been tracking disinformation attempts in real time, has pointed out the Chinese media are "regularly quoting disinformation and conspiracy theories from Russian sources".Chinese television reports about Ukraine do not describe it as a "war" or "invasion"their own nuclear plant, are repeated by Chinese media with little attempt to challenge them.