Headlines and Hashtags

Post calling for declaration of officials' assets deleted

This post including images across China of citizens calling on officials to declare their assets was deleted from Sina Weibo.

The following post by RC-ZSD-MZ Li Xin Tu Zhi (RC-ZSD-MZ历心图志), a user with more than 7,000 followers, was deleted from Sina Weibo sometime before 8:37am today, February 27, 2013. The deleted material is in fact a re-post of images that still remain public on this user’s account showing protests in various places in China calling on officials to make their assets public. [More on deleted posts at the WeiboScope Search, by the Journalism and Media Studies Centre]
The original post reads:

Citizens are taking action: demanding that officials reveal their assets!
公民在行动：要求官员公开财产！

The image strip included in the post is below:

It is not clear why the original post would be allowed to remain on the Sina Weibo platform while the re-post is deleted. The answer could lie in the extended follower network of the re-poster.

NOTE: All posts to The Anti-Social List are listed as “permission denied” in the Sina Weibo API, which means they were deleted by Weibo managers, not by users themselves.

David Bandurski

CMP Director

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