A YouTube channel called “RutersXiaoFanQi” vanished from the platform on Monday after years of satirizing Chinese dictator Xi Jinping.
Internet freedom advocates are concerned the channel was taken down by Chinese Communist Party censors who weaponized YouTube’s copyright infringement rules.on Tuesday that the final video from the channel appears to have been a spoof “news broadcast” that mocked Xi for attempting to become an “emperor” and for claiming honorary university degrees when his actual education is at “elementary school level.
An active member of RutersXiaoFanQi said the shutdown was a case of Chinese censors exploiting YouTube’s system for automatically shutting down channels that receive too many complaints, a tactic China has used in the past. The Chinese Communist Party is notoriously vigorous about shutting down satire, especially insults against Xi because it fears humorous videos are highly effective at spreading dissident ideas.
“These videos can attack the evil done under the Chinese Communist Party in a funny way, and in a short period of time, which is very harmful to the party’s stability maintenance regime,” the anonymous source said.
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