In authoritarian China, there are questions you can’t ask, and then there are questions you can ask but not on some days.
A huge internet company in the country has gotten into trouble after it asked about the date on the most sensitive day of the Chinese political calendar.
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The social media network Xiaohongshu, literally “little red book,” is being investigated by authorities after it posted a message on Friday inviting its followers on Twitter-like Weibo to fill in the blank: “Tell me loudly, today’s date is ______!”
The answer, “June 4,” is sensitive for the Chinese government because it reminds people of the 1989 pro-democracy student protests that ended in a bloody military crackdown in the early hours of June 4 that year.
The Chinese government has since banned people from discussing the event in public. Every year ahead of the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown, social media companies tighten censorship to mitigate political risks, removing candle emojis and banning users from changing their profile pictures just in case.
Social media users are prohibited to post even the fictional date “May 35”—a term coined to get around censorship of “June 4.”
Intended or not, the allusion to the bloodshed in central Beijing 32 years ago has gotten Xiaohongshu blocked on Weibo, where it had 14 million followers.
An old link to the company’s social media page led to a message saying the account is no longer accessible due to violations of laws and regulations.
With investments from Tencent and Alibaba and a $6 billion valuation, the social and shopping platform Xiaohongshu has more than 100 million monthly active users, most of them urban women. It has become a vibrant community for people to exchange tips on everything from fashion to childcare to career development.
The original intention behind its June 4 post is unclear. The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday that Xiaohongshu is working with China’s internet regulator, the Cyberspace Administration of China, to conduct an internal investigation.
The Journal report said the post wasn’t intended to refer to the Tiananmen Square events, citing an anonymous source. Previous posts from the account had asked followers about their dinners and favorite dramas, according to cached versions of Xiaohongshu’s posts.
Xiaohongshu did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.
Chinese social media companies have to employ legions of censors to monitor their networks for content that could be deemed harmful by the government. But having grown up with a censored internet, many young tech workers are completely unaware of the taboo topics, such as the 1989 protests, and the subtle language critics use to refer to them.
For companies offering censorship services, this has led to the awkward situation of having to teach young workers forbidden history, such as the Tiananmen Square crackdown, before they could erase it from the collective memory.
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