China tackles government criticism on Twitter

The Chinese government seems to have started a campaign against critical Twitter users. Chinese who put critical messages on Twitter are arrested and asked to delete the messages in question. Officially, Twitter is not accessible in China.

According to reports from The New York Times, Chinese people who post unwelcome messages on Twitter are in some cases arrested by the police, with one person even being detained for 15 days. In many cases, authorities are demanding that tweets criticizing the Chinese government be removed. The American newspaper also reports that if you refuse, hackers will be deployed who will remove the messages from the Twitter page. Activists in particular are said to be targeted by the Chinese government.

China has long had a strict policy on online activity, strictly regulating social media statements; criticism is censored as much as possible. Twitter is not accessible via the Chinese internet, but some Chinese, for example, use the social network via a VPN.

In many cases, the Chinese government can find out who is hiding behind online accounts, partly because a year and a half ago it was forbidden to respond anonymously on social media. In addition, in many cases, Chinese are required to register on social media with personal information, such as a phone number. LinkedIn recently started verifying all Chinese users by their phone number.