Counterattack against SNS censorship in China ‘new use of NFT’
본문
Permanent Preservation of ‘April Voices’ Criticizing Shanghai COVID-19 Blockade
In China, where internet censorship has become more severe due to the COVID-19 pandemic, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have emerged as a new means of resistance.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on the 21st (local time) that NFTs are attracting attention in China not as an investment in digital art, but as a means to fight back against censorship.
As the authorities raised the level of censorship of online posts to control negative public opinion about COVID-19, more people registered digital files such as pictures and videos on the blockchain to preserve them permanently. A typical example is ‘April Voices’. This 6-minute video containing the voices of Shanghai residents screaming due to the long-term blockade was posted on WeChat, China's social network service(SNS) on April 22, and spread quickly enough to be shared more than 100,000 times within two hours.
However, the video was suddenly deleted on the same day, and it was no longer found on other social media sites such as Weibo and Baidu. Suspicion arose that the authorities' censorship had worked.
In response, some netizens chose to protect the “Voice of April” by using a block chain that the authorities cannot touch. As of the 22nd, if you search for ‘April Voice’ on OpenSea, the world’s largest NFT exchange, 248 NFTs are found. Most of these are either free or sign up for very low prices.
Derek Lee, an in-house lawyer for a technology company based in Shanghai that posted dozens of NFTs related to the Shanghai blockade, including “Voices in April,” said, “Our ordeal must be remembered. There is nothing we can do but remember the hunger, despair and absurdity we experienced,” he told the WSJ that he did not put a price tag on NFTs to preserve memories.
This is not the first time that blockchain technology has been used to combat censorship related to COVID-19. A similar attempt was made when Dr. Li Wenliang, who was reprimanded by authorities for first warning about the dangers of Corona 19 in China, died. Li Won-ryang tried to visualize and leave memorable traces on the blockchain, such as hundreds of thousands of memorial messages left on his Weibo account that he used during his lifetime.
An increasing number of content creators are turning to blockchain to avoid censorship. Guo Liu, co-founder of 'MattersNews', a blockchain-based Chinese publishing platform, said the platform has amassed 100,000 users since 2018 despite being blocked in China.
According to LikeCoin, another blockchain-based publishing platform founded in 2017, around 8,000 websites now use the platform's services to preserve content. It is said that LikeCoin also has articles from Hong Kong’s leading anti-Chinese media, “Apple Daily,” which the government shut down after the passage of the Hong Kong National Security Law.
While using blockchain to resist censorship isn't going to become mainstream in the near future, Liu said “We are looking at ways to drive that forward,” demand for it will certainly increase.
