Formosa News
Date: Mar 10, 2018
A number of local Facebook users have had their accounts locked for posting what the platform deemed “hate speech” concerning China. The language used includes an archaic term for China, as well as the number 426, which in Taiwanese sounds similar to “wretched mainlanders.” Both are considered offensive by Chinese citizens. Some are now calling for users to switch to other social media platforms as a gesture of defiance.
Taiwanese citizens frequently take to the internet to express their disdain for China’s authoritarian government. But some Facebook users have found their accounts locked after they posted anti-China sentiment on the social media behemoth. The explanation? Facebook deemed the posts “hate speech”.
Tim Wei
Electronics Expert
Here in Taiwan we come under the control of Facebook’s Greater China section, so that means we have to follow their algorithms. There are quite a lot of social media platforms. Just quit Facebook and use Instagram or Twitter.
Facebook users have also discovered that posting anti-China and anti-Taiwan content gets quite a different reaction from the site. Screenshots of these two equivalent posts show that only the anti-China post gets its user’s account frozen. Taiwanese netizens are unimpressed.
Member of the Public
This is free speech. If Facebook wants to pledge its allegiance to the Chinese Communist Party, then let’s stop using Facebook.
Some say that a company from the supposed “land of the free” – the United States – should not be restricting its users’ free speech to ingratiate itself with China. Some are even calling for a boycott as an attempt to win more respect from the company.
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