Chinese Social Media Platform Sina Weibo Scraps Plans for ‘Gay Content Ban’ Following Severe Backlash
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| Img: Jon Russell |
Last Friday, Chinese social media giant Sina Weibo announced
their latest campaign intended to curtail the proliferation of pornographic and
violent material on their platform – an admirable goal, you might say, but Sina
Weibo managed to incite outrage in the process.
The problem was that as part of the campaign, the company
intended to censor and/or remove content such as cartoons and video games with ‘gay
themes’. The backlash was immediate and substantial.
Hashtags like #Iamgaynotapervert and slogans such as “Gays
aren’t scary” began to flood the platform as users struck back against these
dated and damaging ideals, accusing the company of promoting discrimination
against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in China. The company
were soon forced to take notice and bow to the wishes of their user base.
In a new statement issued Monday, Sina Weibo stated that
they will be omitting ‘gay’ material from their list of offending content,
focusing their clean-up efforts instead on “pornographic, violent and bloody
content”. They also thanked users for what they downplayed as their “discussion
and suggestions”.
While cartoons and video games seem to be safe for now, the
company did not actually state whether or not they would continue to delete
texts, photos and videos containing ‘gay themes’, which were also included in
Friday’s original announcement. On the whole however the platform’s users seem
to be welcoming of the change of heart; though some, such as Shanghai-based feminist/activist
Bai Fei, feel the company still needs to offer more of an apology.
Bai Fei told the NY Times, “It is totally insincere. They
have already harmed us. I want them to stand up and make a public apology.”
Others still are seeing the silver lining of this situation.
One such person is Ma Baoli, the founder of Blued, a popular gay dating
app in China. He calls the announcement and resulting backlash a “historic
event”, one that shows signs of positive changes in the works.
“This is a nice outcome and a very valuable chance for the
public to discuss homosexuality and to eliminate discrimination,” said ma
Baoli.
Sam
is an aspiring novelist with a passion for fantasy and crime thrillers.
Currently working as Editor of Social Songbird, he hopes to one day drop that
'aspiring' prefix. Follow him @Songbird_Sam
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Chinese Social Media Platform Sina Weibo Scraps Plans for ‘Gay Content Ban’ Following Severe Backlash
Reviewed by Unknown
on
Monday, April 16, 2018
Rating:
Reviewed by Unknown
on
Monday, April 16, 2018
Rating:
Unknown
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