WeChat Became The Platform For Shanghai Residents To Speak Out About China’s Zero-COVID Policy
A six-minute video posted on Chinese social media platform WeChat painted a harrowing timeline of what was happening inside Shanghai during the city’s latest strict COVID lockdown.To get more news about
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After the video went viral, it was taken down by government censors. It got reposted, then taken down again. And again, and again.
“Because there’s no real obvious, reliable voice of authority, it’s always felt like we get news through rumors or WeChat,” Olivia, a resident of Shanghai who lived through the lockdown and asked for her last name to be omitted to protect against government retaliation, told BuzzFeed News. “It doesn’t feel legitimate. It’s kind of like how in America, if you get news on Twitter, there’s kind of an element like, is this real?”Throughout the entire lockdown, social media platforms like Weibo and WeChat became hubs for citizens’ protests. “Balcony parties,” opportunities for residents to go on their balconies and film themselves shouting their frustrations, quickly became a viral form of digital resistance.
It was the 26th day of lockdown in Shanghai when WeChat users began to circulate the now-infamous video, (Si Yue Zhi Sheng), “The Voices of April,” on April 22.For many in Shanghai, the video was the first time they witnessed what their 26 million fellow residents were experiencing, in alarming audio snippets, with no end date in sight.
Filmed in black and white, the viral video shows aerial footage of residential buildings across the Puxi district combined with disjointed audio recordings of citizens, speaking both Mandarin and Shanghainese. “The police are bringing us food,” a voice says in the video. “The good police of Shanghai. We haven’t eaten in days.”
“Are they beating it to death?” a woman asks, while a blow lands on an animal in the background. “Oh my god.”
“I did a PCR test in the hospital and then I went to do chemotherapy,” one woman says outside her neighborhood. “Compounds are not allowing entrance,” a man replies in the background.
“Is he not letting you enter?” another voice asks. “They are residents here! They live inside, you’re not letting people in, how does that make any sense?”
After “Si Yue Zhi Sheng” was posted, government censors that remove content criticizing the ruling Communist Party of China (CCP) began to delete the video, even making the title unsearchable in WeChat.
But users formed a “relay” protest, with different individuals reposting new versions of the video every time it was censored and adding their own audio clips to the comments. Censors were locked in a digital goose chase with citizens, attempting to tamp down a highly public show of government criticism.On social media, lockdown looked like a total dystopian police state, with drones and robots surveilling citizens. In reality, quarantine rules were strict across the city but largely dependent on the number of neighborhood cases. Generally, no car transport was allowed. Residents could receive a pass to leave their neighborhoods on foot or by bike. If your area’s cases decreased, outdoor time allowances became more lenient.
The only central “trusted” channel of information was the official Shanghai government’s channel on Weibo, which operates similarly to Twitter. But many remained skeptical of any information coming out of the government.
“It was a really confusing time,” Olivia said. “I don’t know what’s true or not. And I don’t know who I would ask if things are true or not. No one watches TV for the news, except maybe old people. Towards the end of quarantine, news [channels] would deliberately try and make the government look good, and be like, look how good we’re doing!”
So social media was the main news source for Olivia, where she’d see posts from other people in the same boat. Many social media users began pointing out holes in the official coverage, whether it was a shot of a local grocery store that appeared to be a TV set, or B-roll of an official walking through a deserted compound that users argued was a rooftop.
