YouTube automatically deletes comments that mention some Chinese phrases commonly used to criticize the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Chinese netizens have discovered.
Comments that contain such phrases are deleted within seconds, which suggests that it’s the work of an algorithm.
One apparently banned phrase is “gongfei” (共匪), which can be translated as “communist bandit.” It seems to date back to the Chinese civil war era.
Another phrase that has been deleted is “wumao” (五毛), which literally means “fifty cents” and is commonly used to describe the army of internet trolls the CCP uses to spread its propaganda online. It’s rumored the trolls used to be paid around 50 cents per post.
The Epoch Times tested both phrases repeatedly under different YouTube accounts and different videos, always obtaining the same result—the comments were deleted in roughly 20 seconds.
A spokesman for Google, which owns YouTube, asked for evidence of the deletions, in response to a request for comment emailed by The Epoch Times. The Epoch Times provided extensive evidence, including links to YouTube videos where such comments were deleted, links to individual comments that have been deleted, and videos that capture the comment deletion in real-time.
A company official who asked not to be identified told The Epoch Times that Google isn’t aware of auto-removals of comments, and noted that comments and videos on YouTube are required to follow the platform’s Community Guidelines.
The disappearance of comments was noted on May 13 by Jennifer Zeng, a blogger and creator of YouTube content with a focus on China news and commentary.
CCP Connection
Google has repeatedly come under fire for allegedly creating a cozy relationship with the CCP.Google also faced criticism after it was revealed in 2018 that it was secretly developing a censored search app for the Chinese market, as part of a project dubbed “Dragonfly.”
Lawmakers, human-rights advocates, and even some Google employees spoke out against the project, which, it appears, has since been shelved.
Widespread Abuse
China is one of the world’s worst abusers of human rights, according to watchdogs. In recent decades, the regime has killed hundreds of thousands of prisoners of conscience to sell their organs for transplants, based on extensive research conducted since allegations of the crime first surfaced in 2006.The CCP runs the world’s most sophisticated system of internet censorship, employing tens of thousands of people to manually delete content and make negative or positive posts and comments based on the regime’s instructions.
The regime requires foreign companies that operate in China to censor topics it deems “sensitive,” such as democracy, human rights, and the ongoing persecution in China of Falun Gong practitioners, underground Christians, Uyghurs, rights activists, and others. Companies are also forced to share with the regime any of their data stored in China.
Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai has previously said that the company has invested in China for years and plans to continue to do so.
The Trump administration has placed significant emphasis on pushing back against the CCP, particularly in the tech and cyber sector.
