A popular story on the Chinese microblogging platform Weibo was forced to change its name “comrade voice” because the term refers to homosexuality, which caused an intense criticism of Chinese regulators, known to censor content with gay themes.
The word “Tongzhi” or “comrade” – widely used by the Chinese Communist Party to approach executives – has been adopted in recent decades by the country’s gay community to refer to homosexuals in order to replace derogatory words that defined them before.
Tuesday, the name of the “Voice of Camrade” account was suddenly deleted and replaced by the original user identification number. A day later, the name of the account was changed into “votes of pride” to comply with the country’s internet regulations, said its moderator – causing generalized indignation by Chinese Internet users on apparent censorship.
“The sudden ban on the use of the name can be considered as another example of the deletion of human rights by China,” said human rights activist, Pan Jiawei, noting that the Weibo account served as a precious source of information for groups of sexual minorities in China since its creation in 2009.
“This shows the discrimination of the Chinese government with regard to sexual minorities and, at the same time, it allows the outside world to see how the authorities use ridiculous methods to force companies to follow the party line,” Pan at Radio Free Asia told Pan.
Tuesday, the “Voice of Camrade” account on the Chinese version of X – which has two million followers – publishes an article expressing its concern concerning the decision of the platform to delete the name of which it has been known for more than 16 years.
But in a separate article on Wednesday, he said that the account name “voice of the comrades” was changed into “votes of pride” to meet the relevant requirements of “regulations on the management of information on Internet accounts”.
In this position, the moderator also stressed that the renowned story would respect Chinese laws and regulations, would strongly support the position of the party and the country and will continue to serve sexual minorities.
Many Chinese Internet users have asked why the account had not been renamed “homosexual voice”. Still others have said that the change of forced name reflects the discrimination of the Chinese government with regard to homosexuals and signals of growing restrictions on the content of the gay community.
Although the Chinese government has not criminalized homosexuality, in recent years, many groups and platforms recommending gender equality have not been able to carry out public activities, said Lizi, a defender of Chinese LGBT rights.
The name change shows “… The government wants the voices of sexual equality and groups of sexual minorities to fade from Chinese society, which is linked to government hostility to Western ideology,” said Li.
“The environment of public opinion is very tight, and if various homosexual art groups want to exist, they must remain discreet. Many organizations have in fact changed their names; (for them) at least there is a space for survival,” she added.
In 2012, the contemporary Chinese dictionary considered one of the most authority of China, excluded the homosexual definition of the term “comrade”. At the time, the director of the committee responsible for updating the dictionary said that he had omitted the gay reference to the term to avoid encouraging its use.
Homosexuality – illegal in China until the end of the 1990s – was defined as a mental disorder until this classification was removed in 2001.
“Homosexuality is always a taboo and sensitive word in official circles, so when people use the word” comrade “to refer to homosexuality, the Chinese government is very unhappy,” said independent commentator Hu Ping who lives in the United States in RFA.
“But I think they cannot reverse it. You can change the name … But ordinary people will always consider the” comrade “as a synonym of homosexuality. They will always do it,” said Hu.
In 2018, Weibo announced his intention to censor caricatures, games and short video content on homosexuality as part of a campaign to “create a healthy and harmonious community environment”. But the company was forced to cancel the plan after facing a major reaction of users using the hashtag #IAMGAY.
Published by Tenzin Pema and Mat Pennington.