{"id":244301,"date":"2022-11-17T19:15:37","date_gmt":"2022-11-18T03:15:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?p=244301"},"modified":"2022-11-22T19:54:25","modified_gmt":"2022-11-23T03:54:25","slug":"xinjiang-authorities-investigate-three-for-disrupting-public-order-via-criminal-comment-flooding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2022\/11\/xinjiang-authorities-investigate-three-for-disrupting-public-order-via-criminal-comment-flooding\/","title":{"rendered":"Xinjiang Authorities Investigate Three for \u201cDisrupting Public Order\u201d Via \u201cCriminal Comment-Flooding\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
Three men are being <\/span>investigated<\/span><\/a> by the Xinjiang Cyberspace Administration for \u201cdisrupting public order on the internet and causing adverse social impact\u201d by flooding a live-streamed official press conference with \u201cmalicious<\/a>\u201d comments about COVID-19 controls. The comment flooding was likely an attempt to draw attention to <\/span>food shortages<\/span><\/a>, denials of <\/span>medical care<\/span><\/a>, and <\/span>hardships<\/span><\/a> suffered by residents under lockdown in Xinjiang, particularly in Urumqi, which has been subject to <\/span>back-to-back lockdowns<\/span><\/a> since this summer. In September, local officials in Urumqi, Yining\/Ghulja, and Korla belatedly <\/span>apologized<\/span><\/a> for various \u201cshortcomings and deficiencies\u201d in pandemic controls that led to widespread <\/span>shortages<\/span><\/a> of food, medicine, and infant formula.<\/span><\/p>\n Guo Rui of the South China Morning Post reported on the specifics of the recent <\/span>statement from Xinjiang cyberspace authorities<\/strong><\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n The statement did not give details about the \u201cmalicious\u201d comments, except that one of them repeated the word \u201cUrumqi\u201d \u2013 usually an appeal to call attention to the strict Covid control measures in the city, which has been under lockdown since early August, with hundreds of local infections recorded each day.<\/span><\/p>\n According to the statement, a 41-year-old man from Kashgar, surnamed Li, obtained the live-streaming and press conference schedules of several news media accounts and published them on Douyin \u2013 TikTok in China \u2013 and then used short videos to incite others to \u201cmaliciously flood the screen during the live streaming\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n Another man surnamed Huang, 28, was reported for flooding a live-streaming site with the word \u201cUrumqi\u201d, and for spreading screenshots of the comments in a short video.<\/span><\/p>\n The third man under investigation was a 36-year-old Urumqi man surnamed Li, who allegedly recorded the comments on video and then incited others to imitate them on the video sharing platform. [<\/span>Source<\/strong><\/a>]<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n The irony of concerned citizens being detained for comment flooding about Urumqi has not been lost on Chinese netizens. In September, CDT translated and published leaked censorship directives revealing that government propagandists, in an attempt to <\/span>drown out<\/span><\/a> the voices of Xinjiang residents suffering from food shortages, were \u201c<\/span>flooding<\/span><\/a>\u201d platforms with anodyne content about Xinjiang lifestyles, cuisines, and scenic sites.<\/span><\/p>\n