China’s Twitter erases John Oliver after scathing attack on President Xi Jinping
British comedian scrubbed from social media after skit mentions ‘dystopian levels of surveillance and persecution’ of Uygurs in Xinjiang
New posts mentioning his name or the show have been blocked on the Twitter-like microblogging platform Weibo.
“Clamping down on Winnie the Pooh comparisons doesn’t exactly project strength. It suggests a weird insecurity,” Oliver said.
Attempts to publish posts mentioning Oliver’s name or the name of the show resulted in an error message that the post violated “relevant laws, regulations, or violates Weibo community rules”.
Searches for Oliver’s name were not blocked on Weibo but the Chinese name of the show was censored.
The most recent comments about Oliver or the show were on June 14, before his segment on Xi aired, suggesting newer ones had been deleted.
Clips of the show, uploaded by users, were still online on video platforms but his most recent segment on Xi was not on Weibo or other social media platforms. Oliver’s name did not appear to be censored on other platforms like Douban or Zhihu, a popular question and answer forum.
In his take down of Xi’s China, Oliver also highlighted the expansion of the social credit scoring system, the elimination of term limits made earlier this year, and China’s heavy economic influence around the world.
“Under Xi Jinping China is becoming more authoritarian just as it has major plans for expansion on the world stage … China has significant economic leverage and it has been using that to silence criticism even when criticism is very much warranted.”