On December 1st, many internet users expressed on social media platforms that one of the oldest campus social networking platforms in mainland China, “Renren” suddenly could not be logged in, indicating a suspected service outage that caused users to lose years of stored information.
According to IT Home’s inquiry, currently, “Renren” can still open the login page, but there are no options for registering an account or retrieving a password. When attempting to log in to “Renren,” users are prompted with incorrect account password error messages preventing access.
On December 2nd, IT Home contacted Renren’s official customer service and learned that Renren has ceased operations, with no information available on when services may be restored.
As early as June this year, some internet users claimed that the photo data on Renren suddenly disappeared, but there was no official response at that time.
Originally named “Xiaonei,” Renren was founded in 2005, renamed Renren in 2009, and gained national popularity in 2010 with the “Happy Farm” game, reaching its peak with 200 million active users. However, following multiple acquisitions, adjustments, and the era of mobile internet, Renren gradually faded from people’s view.
The sudden termination of service by Renren has rendered a large amount of user-stored information inaccessible. Many internet users expressed sentiments like, “I wanted to log in, download some old photos, only to realize I can’t log in anymore.” “I don’t know if the data has been deleted. If the database is wiped out, then it’s game over, nothing left to retrieve.”
An article in June titled “Chinese Internet Accelerating Collapse” pointed out that a large amount of content on the Chinese internet is rapidly disappearing, especially information from before 2005, much of which is now unsearchable.
In response, Professor Xie Tian from the University of South Carolina’s Business School told Voice of America that the only possible reason for such an unusual phenomenon is that the Chinese government has demanded internet service providers erase this information. Particularly, the disappearance of a lot of pre-Xi Jinping era data indicates tighter official regulation.
By erasing data from the public eye, Xie Tian believes that the authorities are essentially cutting off a part of history in an attempt to conceal their misdeeds. However, in reality, everything leaves a trace, and overseas media, the internet, and cloud companies record what happens on the Chinese internet.
Further reading:
Massive Disappearance of Information on Chinese Internet – CCP Destroying Evil Records?
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This is a translation and expansion of the original news article from Dajiyuan, reporting on the sudden cessation of services by the Chinese social networking platform Renren and the potential implications for data security and online censorship in China.