China’s Weibo bans more than 1,000 accounts critical of govt’s Covid policy

China’s Twitter-like social media firm, Weibo, has banned more than 1,000 social media accounts considered by the government as critiques ofXi Jinping’s COVID-19 policy.About 1,120 Weibo users were either permanently or temporarily banned from accessing their accounts over "personal attacks" and “inciting conflict” against the country’s health experts, the daily South China Morning Post reported.

Weibo, which claims to have half a billion active users,said it was taking action in response to the 12,854 violations it recorded, including attacks on experts, scholars and medical workers.

“Many experts, academics and internet users have been actively using their professional knowledge and gathering authoritative sources to help with combating the pandemic,” a statement from Weibo said on Thursday.

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“It is not acceptable to hurl insults at people who hold a different point of view, or publish personal attacks and views that incite conflicts. Any kind of move that is destructive to the [Weibo] community would be handled in a serious manner,” the notice said.

The action from the microblogging site came days after Beijing’s top security chiefs warned of zero tolerance against activities that “use the pandemic … to disrupt social order”.

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People’s anger has largely been against open-ended travel restrictions, inadequate food or medical care.

China has been facing a resurgent Covid outbreak, putting hospitals in major cities under severe stress. It is now preparing for further spread into less developed areas with the start of the Lunar New Year travel rush.

Doubts are also being raised on China’s official data on Covid cases, which has prompted several countries to require negative results for travellers from China within 48 hours of departure.

The World Health Organisation has also expressed concern about the lack of data from China, saying that the current numbers on Covid deaths are not showing the true impact of the outbreak.

"We still do not have complete data," the WHO's emergencies director Michael Ryan told reporters.

"We believe that the current numbers being published from China under-represent the true impact of the disease in terms of hospital admissions, in terms of ICU admissions, and particularly in terms of deaths."

(With inputs from agencies)

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