China Clamps Down on Internet as It Seeks to Stamp Out Covid Protests

The Cyberspace Administration of China issued guidance to companies on Tuesday, including

Tencent Holdings Ltd.

and ByteDance Ltd., the Chinese owner of short video apps TikTok and Douyin, asking them to add more staff to internet censorship teams, according to people familiar with the matter. The companies were also asked to pay more attention to content related to the protests, particularly any information being shared about demonstrations at Chinese universities and a fire in the western Xinjiang region that triggered the nationwide backlash over Covid policies.

Rare Protests Explode Across China Over Covid Controls

The directives were issued following an internal meeting at the internet regulator, where officials were also told to ask Chinese search engines, e-commerce companies and internet content platforms to conduct a fresh sweep to remove sales postings and information about how to use virtual private networks, also known as VPNs, according to people familiar with the matter. The regulator also asked officials to get companies to prevent searches related to VPNs, which were used by protesters and their supporters to circulate videos of the recent demonstrations, the people said.

The Cyberspace Administration of China and ByteDance didn’t respond to requests for comment. Tencent declined to comment.

Protesters took to the streets of Beijing, Shanghai and other major cities across China over the weekend calling for an end to the country’s zero-tolerance Covid policies, in a rare display of widespread defiance against the government.

In the days since, the government has used a heavy police presence across major cities to keep protesters off the streets, while using cellphone data and social media sites to hunt down and question those who participated in the demonstrations. Protests have been canceled in recent days amid the heavy police presence, and on Thursday, the streets were again quiet with few signs of unrest.