China’s most recent cyberspace clean-up operation issued a report on May 27, detailing two months of targeting bloggers and other social media accounts.
As part of the campaign, authorities interrogated 2,089 bloggers, closed 66,600 social media accounts, and deleted 1.41 million posts.
Meanwhile, increasingly harsh censorship—reflected in the May 18 arrest of a popular stand-up comedian—has sent a chill through China’s comedy and live arts scene, the BBC reported this week.
Although it has cast a pall over what remains of self-expression in China, experts say the censorship operation is actually a sign of desperation. The ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has lost confidence in its ability to rule, they say, and tightened cyberspace restrictions betray an extreme fear of public opinion….