BEIJING—China has suspended or closed the social media accounts of more than 1,000 critics of the regime’s policies on the COVID-19 outbreak, as the country moves to roll back harsh anti-virus restrictions.
The popular Sina Weibo social media platform said it had addressed 12,854 violations including attacks on experts, scholars, and medical workers and issued temporary or permanent bans on 1,120 accounts.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) allows no direct criticism of its tough lockdowns, quarantine measures, and mass testing, almost all of which it abruptly abandoned last month.
Criticism has largely focused on heavy-handed enforcement of regulations, including open-ended travel restrictions that saw people confined to their homes for weeks, sometimes sealed inside without adequate food or medical care. Anger was also vented over the requirement that anyone who potentially tested positive or had been in contact with such a person be confined for observation in a field hospital, where overcrowding, poor food and hygiene were commonly cited….