On the 37th anniversary of the June 4th Incident, various internet platforms in mainland China strictly screened vague expressions related to the event. Many netizens complained about increased censorship on social media platforms and chat groups, with some everyday vocabulary, images, likes, and exercise records also falling under the filtering scope. Mainland Chinese netizens described the social media censorship as approaching “madness”.
Mr. Ma, an internet user from Qinghai, traditionally posted an electronic candle image every June 4th as a tribute to the event, but this year he “dared not to do so”. He mentioned, “The group administrator previously warned us not to post sensitive photos in the group this year in order to maintain the group’s existence, urging everyone to cooperate. Other group administrators also told me that the administrators informed them to maintain the chat group well and not to cause trouble.”
Screenshots circulated on the internet showed that on June 4th, a Taobao user mentioned that when searching for “84 disinfectant” on Taobao, no results were displayed. After repeated searches, their 20-year-old Taobao account was suspended and they were asked to unlock it through facial recognition. Another screenshot revealed a WeChat user saying, “The censorship is really crazy, and there are account isolations. This morning (June 4th), I liked the candle photo posted by my friend (WeChat account), and then my Moments feature was disabled without any notice, so now no one (domestic WeChat accounts) can see my Moments, but we can see each other.”
Mr. Chen, an internet observer, told reporters, “The authorities are extremely sensitive to numbers like 4, 89, 64, 35, etc. ’84 disinfectant’ (chlorine disinfectants) is a common product, but on June 4th, ’84’ can easily be associated with ‘8964’ in the platform’s algorithms. This indicates that the Chinese Communist Party’s censorship database has been finely tuned for content related to 89, 64, but often there are ‘blanket measures’ and misjudgments, which is a characteristic of communist authoritarianism.”
Another circulated screenshot showed a WeChat user sharing their running record, with the text “Shared running 6.4 kilometers, wishing friends a healthy and happy life.” The accompanying image indicated a running distance of 6.40 km, posted at 9:40 am. While the screenshot itself did not display any account restrictions, on June 4th, the numbers “6.4” were considered a subtle way of commemorating the event by internet users.
Mr. Ding, a former employee of the WeChat technical department, stated that as early as 2019, he had designed an overseas version of WeChat for overseas users, with some distinctions in management and slightly more relaxed handling of sensitive words. However, after 2023, this kind of leniency was no longer present. He remarked, “Previously, overseas WeChat users chatting with each other had a different definition of sensitive words. At that time, overseas WeChat could send June 4th images that domestic users couldn’t see. Recently, there have been account suspensions in the background, where what you send out can only be seen by yourself.”
Mr. Ding further explained, “There are differences in visibility between WeChat accounts and domestic WeChat accounts due to the platform processing based on account regions or registration systems. But on sensitive dates like 6.4, numerical symbols like these are also considered anti-CCP expressions by the system.”
Another internet user submitted that on June 4th, they posted “Crazy Thursday V me 50” on their Moments with an image of a “Tank Man” with a hand-held KFC bag. Within seconds, the content was taken down and set to be visible only to the user. A few hours later, their WeChat account was restricted from using group chats and Moments features. The screenshot showed the Moments caption as “Crazy Thursday V me 50,” with the image of a man in white holding a KFC bag in the middle of the road.
At the time of writing, there have been no public responses from Taobao or WeChat regarding the aforementioned cases.
37 years after the June 4th Incident, narratives related to it remain blocked by the Chinese Communist Party. Overseas scholar Mr. Wang told reporters that the CCP cannot erase the memory of June 4th: “Some use ’84’, some mention ‘6.4 kilometers’, some use candles or a song to express their remembrance. This shows that while the CCP can block history, it cannot eliminate the memories of the people. Every year at this time, these expressions reappear on the internet.”