The South China Morning Post’s (SCMP) micro-blogging accounts on Sina Weibo and Tencent Weibo and its WeChat page were allegedly all shut down this week by the mainland’s internet censors, marking the latest extension of China’s state-wide media suppression.
The three social media accounts, which were used to post updates of the paper’s Chinese-language website, now display error messages. The newspaper’s Sina Weibo page reads: “Sorry, there is something wrong with the account you are currently trying to access, and it is temporarily inaccessible.”
According to the blog “Shanghaiist,” the SCMP accounts “posted updates from the paper’s Chinese-language web property SCMPChinese.com/nanzao.com, now blocked on the mainland.”
Media analysts are speculating that the censorship is most likely in response to the paper’s coverage of the disappearance of the Hong Kong booksellers over the past few months.
The SCMP was a powerful force on Weibo, being named one of the most influential Hong Kong media sources on the platform for the second consecutive year in March 2015. It reportedly had over half-a-million followers before its page was shut down.
It is therefore no surprise that Weibo users were quick to notice and denounce the page’s disappearance. Que Diao Qiu wrote, “Not a surprise. Where are we heading if the newspaper can only report the good [news]?”
“I don’t understand what you are scared of,” posted user Ya Ge Jing pang. “[Do] you really think people will riot after reading the news?”
A third user, Ai Shi Shuang, wrote, “Ever since Alibaba bought SCMP, it has reported more news which Beijing didn’t like. I guess that’s why [the page was shut down].”
However, the recent acquisition of the SCMP by Jack Ma’s Alibaba Group actually added to observers’ fears that the publication’s critical independence would be compromised.
It follows the tenure of Wang Xiangwei as SCMP editor-in-chief between 2012 and 2015, a Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference member and former employee of the China Daily, whose own staff accused him of acting on behalf of Beijing and practicing self-censorship – a claim that Wang later denied.
It was under Wang’s leadership that the social media pages were launched back in April 2013, in an attempt to penetrate further into the digital space and into a wider Chinese market. Staff reporters
the final sina post
Analysts have speculated that the alleged forced closure of SCMP’s social media blogging portals were the result of their unfavorable coverage of mainland authorities over the recent cases of the absent Hong Kong booksellers and publishers. Reportedly, the last post of the newspaper on Sina Weibo read, “[Chinese civil rights lawyer] Yuan Yu Lai bought books on TaoBao from Taiwan and Hong Kong. The Press Authority of Zhejiang Province confiscated the books, so the lawyer issued a lawsuit against the authority.” The post included pictures and a link to the main article, which was posted on the SCMP website.
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