North Korea’s Bomb Test Discussions Being Censored In China

Online discussions regarding North Korea’s latest missile launch on popular microblogging networks like Sina Weibo and WeChat appears to be getting censored by China. This censorship is apparently linked to the Brics summit and the state media’s ongoing focus on the success of the meeting. The summit brings the leaders from Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, with China hosting the summit in the city of Xiamen.

Image via bbc.com

Amidst the blatant censorship, web users are currently expressing their disappointment particularly to the relationship between China and North Korea that clings to a threat of nuclear war.

As of now, typing the words “Hydrogen bomb” in Sina Weibo would only result in an automated message that says, “According to the relevant laws, regulations and policies, the results cannot be displayed.” The censorship-monitoring site FreeWeibo currently points out that the top three censored searched keywords are “North Korea”,”Hydrogen Bomb” and “Brics.”

In addition to this, China is also actively removing posts relating to “Firecracker” from Sina Weibo’s directory. This is mainly due to China’s coverage of North Korea’s missile activities over the weekend. Posts that contain subjects pertaining to the tense border situation between the two countries are also being censored.

They are also apparently actively muting the posts that contain comments that that express fears about the situation in north-east China. For instance, a post from a user with a handle “Wang Zhanyang” about the tremors in Changchun that is close in the North Korean border was already removed.

Many comments that pertain to the harsh censorship are also actively being removed. For instance, one comment from a user that goes by the handle Beijing JinGege that pointed out the deletion of posts regarding Kim Jong-un has already been removed.

So what do you think about this ongoing censorship in China? Comment below and let us know!