for these hours, Weibo, the most popular social network in China, has implemented a measure that is already causing great controversy. From this Thursday, the platform publicly share the location and IP address of each user in their postsas well as on your profile. The supposed objective of this determination is to “reduce the bad behavior” of its users on the Internet.
The decision was reported through the official Weibo profile. According to the platform, the new settings aim to prevent accounts that “impersonate parties involved in hot topics” or spread “malicious disinformation.” [sic].
Weibo is widely considered “Chinese Twitter” and currently has about 570 million active users. And the people behind each account cannot do anything to prevent this sensitive data from being shared publicly, since it is not an option that can be manually activated or deactivated from the service settings.
As explained Reutersevery new post made on Weibo now shows the IP address next to a label with the province or municipality from which it comes. And in the event that a post is made from outside China, the country of origin will be identified with its respective IP address.
“Weibo has always been committed to maintaining a healthy and orderly discussion environment and protecting the rights and interests of users to obtain real and effective information quickly,” they justified from the service.
As expected, the reactions around the new measure adopted by Weibo have been mainly negative. And while there have been comments from users who believe that it is a positive decision to fight against the spread of rumors and false news on sensitive topics, they are the least.
Weibo and a controversial measure that enlarges the shadow of Chinese censorship
After all, there are plenty of reasons for Chinese netizens to be mostly pessimistic. The censorship exercised in the Asian giant is known throughout the world, and has caused many Western companies to leave the country. The cases of LinkedIn and Yahoo! they have been among the most recent, in this sense.
It is not the first time that Weibo has been at the center of the scene for the application of measures that restrict freedom of expression. A decade ago, the platform had made the news after publishing a list of topics that should be censored among its publications; They ranged from the revelation of national secrets, to the incitement of protests and demonstrations, through the promotion of “bad superstitions”, among others.
It is not known if the most recent decision of the social network has been influenced by the Chinese government, although it would not be unusual for it to be so. In the end, it has all the earmarks of being a measure of intimidationmore than anything else.
Knowing how the authorities of this country control the activity of users on the Internet, it is logical to think that Weibo already had the capacity to record the IP address and location – be it precise or approximate – of each user, only that it did not make it public. Now, disclosure of that data appears to be a clear warning to the public that their footsteps are followed closely.
And while this is happening in China, in the West the discussion about what freedom of expression is is twisting more and more according to convenience. Let’s just hope that on this side of the world no platform comes up with an idea as dire as Weibo’s.