Weibo Ends ‘Gay Censorship’ After Mass Outcry

China’s Social Media Platform Weibo Ends ‘Gay Censorship’

For the vast majority of the time, I’m quite happy that I live in a society that is reasonably accepting of all creeds, religions, races and miscellaneous items in the human race. This is particularly when compared with China which seems to want to have a hand in pretty much all of your life.

You might at this point be wondering what I’m wittering on about. Well, yesterday we reported on how a social media platform in China began a crackdown on homosexual content. Weibo is largely recognised as China’s version of Facebook. There is, however, one key difference. Weibo is pretty much state run. So put simply if the state doesn’t approve, you’ll probably find out about it fairly soon.

The decision by the state meant that any, even vaguely homosexual content, was removed from the social media site. As you can imagine, people were not happy.

A policy U-Turn

Initially, the Chinese government was standing quite firm on the issue. They were even going so far as to delete any comments citing criticism against the decision. They have, however, decided that based on the massive backlash from the people, to reverse the policy.

As per when we reported on the matter initially, China has a very unusual legal policy in regards to homosexuality. Put simply, they don’t have one. I’m not even joking, they have no specific laws regarding homosexuality. While that might sound good, trust me, it isn’t.

It is, however, unusual to see the Chinese government reserve a decision. The decision clearly indicates that the public backlash over the decision was much greater than they thought.

It might sound a crazy thing to ban, but don’t forget that they banned Winnie the Pooh from social media as well.

What do you think about this? What will be next on the ban list on Weibo? Should the state back down on social media control? In addition, should Winnie the Pooh be free? – Let us know in the comments!