Thousands of WeChat accounts suspended after protests calling for removal of 'dictator and traitor Xi Jinping' while 'anti-Xi Jinping poster' spreads in China via Apple's AirDrop

In China, criticism of President Xi Jinping, the supreme leader, is subject to crackdowns, but in order to escape from this crackdown, a system that allows you to send files via wireless communication between Apple devices ' AirDrop 'Response via. It is reported that posters appealing to Xi Jinping are spreading.

Anti-Xi Jinping Posters Are Spreading in China via AirDrop
https://www.vice.com/en/article/wxn7nq/anti-xi-jinping-posters-are-spreading-in-china-via-airdrop

Below are some of the posters actually distributed by AirDrop. The posters read, 'We want food, not PCR tests. We want freedom, not lockdown.' 'The dictator and traitor Xi Jinping.' Slogans such as 'against tyranny' are written.

The slogan written on this poster is the same as the one written on the banner under the elevated highway in Beijing in mid-October 2022. Demonstrations against the government are prohibited in China, and comments, photos, and images criticizing Xi Jinping are censored by monitoring authorities on the Internet.

The appearance of the banner on the highway was filmed in a movie and can be seen below.

Chinese protest banners calling for Xi Jinping's removal taken down by Beijing officials - YouTube


However, since AirDrop performs wireless communication only between devices, it is difficult for authorities to track it compared to SNS. AirDrop is perfect for distributing posters that criticize Xi Jinping while avoiding the eyes of authorities. A similar technique was used in the Hong Kong democratization demonstrations held in 2019-2020.

Throwback to when Hong Kong protesters used AirDrop to breach China's Firewall: https://t.co/Nhxp0L3m22 https://t.co/jUiqYl1rCO

— Mary Hui (@maryhui) October 19, 2022

In addition to AirDrop, it seems that some people are putting up posters and writing slogans on the walls of university toilets, bulletin boards, and outside China.

In addition, although it was spread in a blink of an eye on SNS, it was immediately censored and deleted, and words such as 'bridge', 'brave', and 'Beijing' were also added to the censorship list. WeChat, an indispensable social media platform for daily life in China, was inundated with complaints that it was ``inaccessible'' immediately after the images and photos of the banner incident were circulated. With the accounts of thousands of people who shared videos and photos of the incident suspended, some users said, ``I have been using this account for 10 years and have saved many messages and photos that are invaluable. It is reported that he desperately apologized.

Chinese Internet Users Lose Access to WeChat App After Beijing Protest - WSJ
https://www.wsj.com/articles/chinese-internet-users-lose-access-to-wechat-app-after-beijing-protest-11665757947