Sep 11, 2020 19:00:00

GitHub is used to share information on the new Corona in China

GitHub , a software development platform, can host source code under version control by Git . Since GitHub is one of the few platforms accessible in China, where information censorship is strict, a large amount of information related to the new coronavirus infection (COVID-19) subject to censorship by government authorities is archived, which is valuable for Chinese people. It is a source of information sharing.

In China, GitHub Is a Free Speech Zone for Covid Information --Slashdot
https://yro.slashdot.org/story/20/09/10/1735241/in-china-github-is-a-free-speech-zone-for-covid-information

When COVID-19 showed signs of epidemic in China in January 2020, doctoral student Weilei Zeng was watching the COVID-19 epidemic online from an apartment in California. .. Zeng, who lives in the United States far from his hometown of China, was criticized for being 'damaged by rumors' for warning of isolated patient diary, overcrowded hospital footage, and virus, and died at COVID-19. It seems that he was checking the news of the young doctor who dropped it one by one through Chinese social media.

However, one day suddenly the link that was accessible until then spit out a 404 error code and became unviewable. In China, social media platforms used around the world such as Facebook and Twitter are banned, and social media for China such as WeChat and Weibo are also closely monitored by the government. Most of the information related to COVID-19 on the Internet has been deleted by government censorship.

Under such circumstances, only GitHub, which has a great influence on the Chinese technology industry, was accessible from within China. Because traffic is encrypted on GitHub, government officials can't even censor individual projects. As a result, GitHub has become one of the few “sanctuaries” for the Chinese people and is also used as a platform for online anti-government movements.

Zeng, who used GitHub for his university research projects, noticed that GitHub's '2020nCovMemory' repository contains news and medical articles that disappeared due to censorship. Therefore, Mr. Zeng also launched '

2020nCov_individual_archives ' that summarizes personal posts and interviews on social media, and worked with volunteers to collect and store information related to COVID-19.

However, after the lockdown in Wuhan, China ended in April 2020 and China announced that 'the spread of COVID-19 is already under control, ' 2020n CovMemory suddenly disappeared from GitHub. According to the Hong Kong daily South China Morning Post , all three users who launched 2020n CovMemory have been detained by police and are missing.

At the time of writing, 2020nCov_individual_archives remains undeleted from GitHub. Zeng said, 'We will continue to work to the limit without crossing boundaries. Is archiving personal posts a resistance to the government? Never know where the line is. I don't think there is any. '