Last month, China tightened its control over Christian content within cyberspace by banning Christian videos and taking down Christian music and articles.
During this year’s Easter which fell in early April, some Christian WeChat accounts said it was much harder to upload Christian videos unto the popular social media platform. A week before the Holy Week, a Christian public account revealed that videos about the Passion Week were passed and released on Palm Sunday, but after that, relevant videos failed to be uploaded.
A notice released on April 14 declared that music with sensitive religious lyrics would be removed as music platforms such as Kugou and Kuwo changed their auditing rules. Many shared playlists containing sacred music or Christian hymns were re-audited or removed on Netease Cloud Music, a freemium music streaming service. Playlists of Hillsong and classic worship music were deleted.
Some WeMedia accounts on Douban, a Chinese social networking service website allowing users to record information and create content, added that some Christian articles were taken down there.
Several popular Christian WeChat accounts with titles concerning “Bible” or “gospel” were removed on April 29. Any search using keywords including “Christ (jidu in Chinese),” “gospel,” and “fellowship” fails to get any Christianity-related public accounts.
