After stabbings, China's social media firms face crackdown on hate speech | Technology

Taichung, Taiwan – For one user on the Chinese social media platform, Weibo, the problem was Americans.

“British people make me nervous too, but I hate Americans,” read the user's comment.

He was Japanese for another.

“I really hope the Japanese die,” the user repeated 25 times in a post.

Xenophobic and hyper-nationalist comments are easy to come by on Chinese social media platforms, even after some of the country's biggest tech firms last year pledged to crack down on hate speech following a series of knife attacks against Japanese and American citizens in the country .

There have been at least four stabbings of foreign nationals in China since the summer, including an incident in September in which a 10-year-old Japanese student was killed in Shenzhen.

The attack, which took place on the anniversary of a false flag event staged by the Japanese military to justify the invasion of Manchuria, prompted the Japanese government to demand an explanation from its Chinese counterpart as well as assurances that it would do more to protect Japanese nationals .

After the incident, some Japanese companies offered to repatriate their employees and their home to the home.

Months earlier, a knife attack that injured four American instructors at Jilin College put US-China relations under strain, with US Ambassador R. Nicholas Burns accusing Chinese authorities of not being forthcoming with information about the incident, including a motive of the attacker.

Beijing, while expressing regret over the attacks and offering condolences to the victims' families, insists the stabbing collapses were isolated incidents.

“Such cases can happen in any country,” Lin Jian, a spokesman for China's foreign ministry, told a regular media briefing after the attack in Shenzhen.

While the Chinese Foreign Ministry and the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo did not respond to requests for comment, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, Collum County other information ”.

“The Chinese government has always opposed any form of discrimination and hate speech and calls on all sectors of society to jointly maintain the order and security of cyberspace,” the spokesperson told Al Jazeera.

While violence against foreigners in China is rare, the apparent rise in attacks in 2024. and the spread of hate speech online has raised concerns in the country, said Wang Zihen, a former Chinese state media journalist and founder of the Pekingnology newsletter.

“He started internal discussions about this kind of speech and how to limit it,” Wang told Al Jazeera.

Despite promises by Chinese tech companies to crack down on hate speech against foreigners, policing such content is far from clear, according to Andrew Devine, a PhD student at Tulane University in the US who specializes in China's authoritarian politics.

“Especially because (tech) companies have incentives not to police hate speech,” Devine told Al Jazeera.

While the algorithms used by Chinese social media platforms to distribute content have been shared with the Chinese government, they have not been disclosed to the public, making it difficult to know the exact mechanism by which hate speech spreads online.

Elena Yi-Ching Ho, an independent research analyst focused on propaganda and social media in China, said the algorithms used by Chinese social media platforms are most likely no different from those used by platforms outside the country.

“They want to maximize engagement between users on their platforms, and they want users to stay on their platform as long as possible,” Ho told Al Jazeera.

In the hunt for users' attention, it can be lucrative for Chinese influencers and vloggers to seek controversy with hyper-nationalist content, Ho said.

In today's China, a perceived lack of patriotism can attract public fury.

Last year, Chinese water bottle company Nongfu Spring had its bottles pulled from stores en masse after social media users claimed the company's logo depicted Japan's Mount Fuji.

Online condemnation has spread of company owner Zhong Shanshan, who has questioned his loyalty to China, a charge amplified by the fact that his son holds US citizenship.

In 2023 Rocks and eggs were thrown at two Japanese schools in Qingdao and Suzhou after Tokyo decided to release treated radioactive waste water from the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea.

Wang said the proliferation of negative comments about foreigners on Chinese social media was partly a result of growing hostility between China and some other countries.

“China's relations with some countries have deteriorated quite significantly in recent years,” Wang said.

China and Japan have settled a number of historical and territorial disputes, including the status of the Diao/Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea.

The US and China have also seen a strained relationship in recent years amid disputes over topics ranging from trade and the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic to Beijing's claim to ownership of self-ruled Taiwan.

But hate speech against foreigners predates some of these recent clashes, according to Ho.

“Both Japan and the Japanese have been particularly targeted,” she said.

Some Chinese bloggers and social media users have traced the roots of negative sentiment toward the Japanese to what they call “hate education” about Japan, including its imperial-era abuses in China.

Wang said Japan's actions during World War II deeply affected China's national psyche.

“Japan launched invasions in World War II where tens of millions of Chinese died, and that remains in many minds of the Chinese people today,” he said.

“For some people, it feels like the Japanese haven't done enough to redeem this.”

Still, some Chinese citizens argue that Japan's atrocities should not be used to justify hateful sentiments toward the Japanese today.

“I think we need to change the way we deal with our past if we want to see less hate speech,” Tina Wu, a 29-year-old social media manager in Shanghai, told Al Jazeera.

Although hate speech is not solely a problem on the Internet in China, Chinese social media platforms, unlike those in the US, operate in a highly censored environment where repression of sensitive topics is a semi-permanent event.

China has the least free internet environment in the world along with Myanmar, according to a report of 72 countries by the US-based non-profit Freedom House.

In 2020 over 35,000 words related to Chinese President Xi Jinping have been censored, according to the China Digital Times.

Devine said that while some hateful comments are subject to censorship, content that expresses the official position of the Chinese government is less likely to be removed.

He said he did not believe the pledge by Chinese tech companies to tackle xenophobia and hate speech would do much to change the spread of such content.

“At the same time, tech companies want to avoid additional costs for the police,” he said.

Regardless of incentives, social media platforms with more than one billion active users cannot realistically print every instance of hate speech, Wang said.

“There's so much information, and more is being added all the time, that there's just no way to root or remove it all,” he said.

“Even China's capacity for moderation has its limits.”

Wang said he was optimistic that China's friendly exchanges with some countries recently and the country's growing power and influence would lead to less anti-foreign sentiment.

“China must have the confidence to enter the future with a greater sense of security and confidence, rather than being haunted by the memories of the past,” he said.

Wu, from Shanghai, also said he hopes to see a reevaluation of some of the dominant narratives in China, particularly related to foreigners.

“Right now is a big part of Chinese history when we are constantly the victims of foreign aggression,” she said.

“And while this continues to be a strong message, I fear there may be more attacks on foreigners in China.”