Beautiful Virgin Islands

Monday, Oct 06, 2025

Trump’s social media ban derided in China amid crackdown on Big Tech

Trump’s social media ban derided in China amid crackdown on Big Tech

Chinese pundits and academics call Trump’s social media ban a cautionary tale as the country cracks down on Big Tech.
The widespread deplatforming of US President Donald Trump from multiple social media platforms has sent shock waves around the world amid intensifying debate over the power and role of Big Tech in everyday life. Since the deadly storming of the US Capitol last week, Trump has been permanently banned from using Twitter, indefinitely banned on Facebook and Instagram and, as of Tuesday evening, suspended from YouTube for a week.

Online reactions in China to Trump’s ban from social media platforms have been mixed. Many were shocked that US platforms had the audacity to silence the country’s president. Some were relieved that Trump was being punished. Others have taken a more sympathetic stance, relating Trump’s predicament to their own experiences of being banned from social platforms.

But state-owned media commentators and academics are increasingly weighing in, painting the ban as a cautionary tale of social media platforms wielding too much power. Many also claim that the ban hypocritically goes against US advocacy of free speech.

The commentary comes amid an ongoing regulatory crackdown aimed at Chinese tech giants, a firestorm first touched off in November when the Chinese government halted the initial public offering of Ant Group and then initiated an investigation last month into Ant affiliate Alibaba Group Holding, China’s largest e-commerce company and owner of the South China Morning Post.

Mei Xinyu, a researcher at the China’s Ministry of Commerce, expressed concerns over the potential for freewheeling tech platforms to pose a political threat to the country.

“The behaviour of these social media platforms has raised panic in other countries,” Mei said. “Tech companies in China have to make a positive impact. We won’t restrain ourselves economically. But in terms of political risks, we can’t allow this to happen in China.”

Wang Sixin, a professor from the Communication University of China, echoed those sentiments.

“This incident of a group of tech giants conspiring to choke off Trump is a cautionary lesson for our own regulations,” Wang said. “Put differently, we must not let these internet companies, especially the alliance of them, achieve an information monopoly.”

In a viral Weibo post, Hu Xijin, editor of the nationalist tabloid Global Times, said that China should uphold its own regulatory standards and principles for guiding the internet, independent of how the US government or companies act.

“The freedom of speech is constrained by boundaries. That has long been our understanding,” Hu wrote. “The US used to deny China’s interpretation of freedom of speech, but now [Americans] have shown their true colour. They have admitted the fact that their society does impose constraints on free speech.”

Influential blogger Ren Yi also weighed in under his pen name Tuzhuxi. He called Trump’s ban from social media an example of “free speech as controlled by big capitalists and corporations”.

“Public power can’t limit free speech, but corporations can limit free speech. This is an interesting current state in the US. This is how the US organises its society differently from China,” Ren wrote.

Other scholars warn that Big Tech’s curbing of Trump’s reach to his supporters should not be conflated with censorship, as many in China assert.

“The context of government control of internet content is very different between the US and China. In the US, the focus is on dissemination of false information that might lead to violent acts or the spreading of diseases,” said Victor Shih, an associate professor at the University of California, San Diego‘s School of Global Policy and Strategy.

“In China, the government already has wide-ranging power to filter out content on the internet. I am not sure how much more control it can exert on internet platforms without reducing them to state media,” he added.

While debates about free speech online can be found around the world, deplatforming from China’s internet services can have severe consequences. Apps like WeChat have become such an essential part of daily life in China that being cut off could mean losing access to many important services both online and offline. It also means losing touch with friends and family.

In August 2020, a man fell to his death from Tencent’s customer service building in Shenzhen after unsuccessfully trying to get a WeChat ban repealed, Chinese business media Caixin reported at the time.

Lin Yi, a Wuhan native, said one of her Weibo accounts was suspended in March last year after she reposted content about Li Wenliang, a whistle-blower doctor who died of Covid-19. The post called for freedom of speech.

She tried complaining to Weibo’s customer service for a month, but no one responded. Lin said she eventually gave up on that account and registered two new ones as backups. She now self-censors when using her new accounts, she said.

“My biggest demand for regulating Big Tech in China would be less censorship, but that’s not going to happen,” Lin told the Post.

Lin also said Big Tech’s presence in daily life remains a problem.

“For WeChat, if your account gets suspended, the negative impact on your life is huge. I’d want potential regulations to require WeChat to warn users first, before doing suspensions,” Lin said.

Jyh-an Lee, a law professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong who researches internet law, said that services such as mobile payments that are provided by technology giants have become almost like a utility in China, leaving people with no choice to opt out. This has made the companies a target for regulation as the government looks to protect consumers and strengthen political control.

“What makes this technology particularly valuable is that people have no choice. There’s no way for you to live without Alipay or WeChat Pay. That is a way that government regulates private behaviour, through hi-tech companies,” Lee told the Post.

“Every move you make online is actually monitored, documented and recorded. That’s why data has become important,” he added. “Data is not only the fuel for the new economy, but I also think it’s an important resource for the government to exert stronger control over private activities.”

The Cybersecurity Administration in the northeastern city of Tianjin said that big data has become an important tool for governance, according to a report by the magazine Oriental Outlook published on Sunday. The agency said big data is as important as guns and pens, using a metaphor from former Chinese leader Mao Zedong, who used the items to refer to the military and propaganda as means of seizing and maintaining power.

With the ongoing antitrust investigation into Alibaba and the introduction of a raft of measures targeting internet companies over consumer data security and monopolistic practices, China’s tech companies will have little choice but to cooperate, according to Lee.

“I don’t think there is a choice to say no,” he said. “Usually, cooperation is much better than confrontation.”
Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
×