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The Harsh Truth About Social Media in China

Maintaining a highly conservative socialist environment depends on keeping the people happy and looking away from other countries with democratic cultures.
The last thing China desires is an uprising of the people against its government because of the chaos. The perpetuation of a strict check and balance system must be in effect.

The Truth About Social Media in China

The truth about Social Media in China can be summed up in one word– controversial! Surprised? Hear me out!

Saying that the very topic of social media in China is controversial in itself is an understatement. Whether a communist country or a capitalist country, the government controls all aspects of life. Still, we are living in the modern age of technology. Hence, the first place where the Chinese government has cracked down is on the social media world.

The Truth About Social Media in China: An Introduction

To clarify, living outside of China, you will be familiar with multiple social media platforms. Examples include Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, and Twitter. The whole world uses these platforms to share, view, and interact with the various forms of media.

This means that anyone can post their opinions no matter what topic it is. Thus, online content is sharable from anywhere globally; anyone can view, share and interact with posts. However, they don’t even have to search for it because of the algorithm-based explore pages!

The Truth About Social Media in China

What, you may wonder? China does not want its citizens to be aware of the latest news regarding democratic countries worldwide, their day-to-day lives, and how their governments operate.
Being a conservative socialist country, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) government works overtime to ensure that its citizens are entirely isolated from the rest of the world. Sadly, they’ve often ended up being vastly successful.

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China’s strategy to keep its citizens living away from the rest of the world is genuinely astounding. China is one of the most densely growing countries in the world. To be exact, most of its citizens are active internet users– 730,000,000. Yet, the CCP has applied strict online policies without fight. As a result, they can redirect citizens from foreign social media platforms to locally formed ones.

This approach can be summed up with two vital results of the censorship discussed below:

Rein In The Public: Effectively Control Social Media In China

The Truth About Social Media in China

China is not a country that fools around. Not at all. Thus, when it comes to the information exposed to the public, it’s all kept quiet and hush-hush. Everything is confidential. The public cannot enquire or ask unnecessary, poking questions. Unless they want to be fated to misfortune.

Maintaining a highly conservative socialist environment depends on keeping the people happy and looking away from other countries with democratic cultures.

The last thing China desires is an uprising of the people because of the chaos. The perpetuation of a strict check and balance system must be in effect. What is shared online is the government’s way of keeping the people out of harm’s way.

Consequently, the government keeps tabs on who is posting what. Secondly, they also keep an eye on the news. Therefore, only government-approved information is shared on social apps.

Domestic Companies Benefit Heavily: A Monopoly

Chinese Social Media Giants

For example, in 2016 alone, more than 42,000,000 new internet users joined this number of already active internet users. These new users amount to the total populations of Canada, and Costa Rica combined!

Therefore, saying that the CCP controls such a large country virtually is something. The citizens consuming the media created for them only benefits the country. In addition, this means that the domestic online platforms help heavily.

Alibaba GroupBaidu, and other online companies that are the only ones accessible to the Chinese people benefit from an alarming state. There is a massive number of Chinese public ordering from these platforms. Therefore, they have become the most successful online companies in China and in the world. This is very vital to note. This proves that locally, you can grow your economy if you pivot the freedom of your citizens by using censors and proxies. 

The Question is Why: The Secret To Understanding Social Media In China?

China made its own social media platforms to keep a population of avid internet users occupied. Outlets that effectively replaced those made in foreign countries. As such, the Chinese party did this for several reasons– mainly to keep its citizens in check. In addition, China has developed an incredibly sophisticated network tracking system. This system now demands any company owner to have a license to own a website.

This new crackdown on virtual online tracking has led China and its government to gain a vast amount of power over the normal populace. The government now knows who has posted what and from where. They know your location, and they know where exactly you are getting your information from.

What China is doing to its citizens is considered illegal in most parts of the world. No matter how authoritarian it may seem, the government cannot tap in to know the locations and whereabouts of their own citizens, no matter what they post.

Conclusion

In conclusion, China holds a monopoly on information within the country. The government controls all aspects of life within its borders. So, one starts to question themselves: Should leaders be as powerful and controlling? Furthermore, are the people really in danger when China’s economy seems to be blooming day by day?
I think it’s an urgent matter that deserves attention now. Before it gets too late before we reach a turning point.
Help others see this truth about social media in China. If you liked this post, please let me know in the comments. Moreover, share it with your friends. Please share your thoughts below. If you want similar stuff in the future, drop a comment letting me know.

Interested in more? Check out a similar post to read about some of the most exotic foods of China.

Edited By: Syed Umar Bukhari.

By Hina Butt

Hina has spent a huge chunk of her life in China and considers it as her second home. She's a mommy of two perfect kids and now lives in Oman after moving in with her husband.
Before she started writing blog posts for SesameDisk, she got a graduate degree in Medicine(M.B.B.S) from Southeast University, Nanjing, China. During that time, just to shake things up, she went to Language school at the Shandong University in Jinan and ended up passing HSK Level 6 with flying colors.
She then worked as a GP and did a handful of practices, taught English in Chinese schools and later got into beauty blogging with some really important people who are way too dignified to be named here!
She now writes full-time.

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