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China censored one of the leading streamers. Now Li Jiaqi fans Ask about the Tiananmen Square Massacre

But this year, these attempts backfired, garnering attention and raising questions about the carnage from previously unnoticed young Chinese Internet users.

The fiasco has begun on Friday night when show Li Jiaqi, the country’s leading online streamer, cut short abruptly after he and his co-host introduced the audience with plate of Viennetta ice cream from the British brand Wall’s.

Flaky ice cream, decorated with Oreo cookies on his sides and what turned out to be chocolate ball and chocolate stick on top, reminded shape of tank — very sensitive icon to display in public just hours until midnight June 4th.

the day before of On June 4, 1989, Chinese leaders sent in tanks and heavily armed troops clear Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, where student protesters gathered for weeks before demand democracy and great freedoms.

Repression that killed hundreds, if not thousands, of unarmed protesters shunned in classes and strict censorship in in media as well as online. Censors are especially vigilant in in lead-up to its anniversary, quickly removing even the most vague mentions – from candle emojis to cryptic phrases. like “May 35” – from the Internet.

How much result young The Chinese, especially those born after the massacre, grew up up with little knowledge of tragedy.

So it is not surprising that many of Li basically young fans were taken aback by the sudden suspension of his friday show during which he sold wide range of snacks and drinks from cookies to sodas.

“Which on earth happened to Li Jiaqi? All of all of a sudden his live stream was gone. Can anyone who know about it tell me us”?” the user asked. on Weibo, Chinese Twitter-like Platform.

this is possible that Lee himself, born in 1992, was also without knowing of symbolism. Having made he was nicknamed “Lipstick King” after selling 15,000 lipsticks. in just five minutes in 2018, Lee was careful to stay in in good books of authorities. So much of his peers found outcareless politician mistake risks losing business sponsorships or worse.

Shortly after his live broadcast was interrupted, Lee told his 50 million followers on Weibo what’s up team fixed a “technical glitch” and asked them to “wait for instant”. Two hours he later apologized in another post what live broadcast could no longer resume work that evening due to ” failure of our inner equipment.”

“Everyone go to bed early. We’ll bring you the groceries that weren’t broadcast (tonight) in future live broadcasts,” he wrote.

But the promised live broadcasts never happened. Sunday Lee failed to show up for another scheduled show is even more embarrassing and disturbing fans.

Monday search for Lee’s name is no longer relevant results on taobao, online shopping site where Li show was live streaming. It boasts 60 million followers on website.

CNN reached out for comments from Mei One, Lee’s agency; Unilever, the British multinational corporation that owns Wall’s; and Alibaba, Chinese tech giant owning Taobao.

On Weibo, messages and comments referring to the suspension of Lee broadcast so that the ice cream in the form of a tank begins to multiply. A little fans they said found out about sensitivity of tank symbol bypassing the Great Firewall of China of online censorship, alluding to the massacre as “what event.” Conversations took place in veiled terms under vigilant eyes of censors and many of they disappeared soon after they were posted.

Six arrested for snuffing tobacco in Hong Kong out Vigil in Tiananmen Square but memories live onSix arrested for snuffing tobacco in Hong Kong out Vigil in Tiananmen Square but memories live on

Among the messages that remained visible were those swearing to “trust our (communist) party and our state” despite learning of the repression. Others said they believed Li was set up by “capitalists” or “foreign forces”.

Eric Liu, analyst in China Digital Times, American news website censorship tracking in China, the Chinese say government was caught in embarrassing situation – if he completely censors Lee’s name, he risks attracting even more attention to the matter. So Weibo had to roll out big amount of human power manually censor each post which mentions Li’s name, Liu said.

“This is Streisand effect” he said, referring to the unintended consequence of drawing attention to information trying to censor it.

“Censorship is the preservation truth from public. But if people not know about it, they are bound to keep making “mistakes” like this,” he said.

Similar incidents have happened before. Last yearXiaohongshu, Chinese social an Instagram-like app had its own Weibo account shut down after the company asked in a post on June 4: “Tell me out loud what date is it today?”

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Tyler Hromadka
Tyler Hromadka
Tyler is working as the Author at World Weekly News. He has a love for writing and have been writing for a few years now as a free-lancer.

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