Tactile Resistance against a controlled network
It didn’t take long for people to realize it was not just the coronavirus they were fighting against, but also the disappearance of individual voices on social media. Censorship has been used to ensure a centralized, positive narrative in which we all have confidence and hope in conquering the crisis. Contents that don’t align with such narrative are likely to get deleted.
Post of a girl telling the story of her mom committing suicide after losing hope of getting treatment disappeared on Weibo; video of woman sitting on a balcony, ringing a bell and screaming for help disappeared; post from a mom telling the story of her son starving to death while his parents are being quarantined, disappeared… Chinese citizens are no strangers to online censorship, but the disappearance of such posts angers people more than ever, as individuals behind these posts are not activists and have no interests in politics; they are merely telling stories of their personal sufferings, and shouting for survival. Are we not allowed to feel hopeless?