In recent days, the mother of “Niu Tengyu” from the “Vulgar Wiki” platform, known as Coco X, had her account suspended. On the same day, her sister, who takes care of her daily life, also had her phone number blocked. Sources revealed that this was due to her continuous exposure of human rights issues in Guangdong.
According to Ms. Yang (pseudonym), who is familiar with the situation, “Coco, who is unable to take care of herself, relies on her sister for daily life assistance. On November 18th, Coco’s X account, ‘Niu Tengyu’s mother,’ was suspended, and her sister’s phone was also blocked, causing significant inconvenience in their lives.”
After Coco complained to the X.com platform, her account was reactivated, but a few hours later, certain functions were once again restricted.
The “Vulgar Wiki” case involving Xi Jinping’s daughter’s personal information led to the conviction of 24 youths, with Niu Tengyu being arrested by authorities in Maoming, Guangdong in July 2019. After being coerced into confessing under torture, he was labeled the “ringleader.” On December 30, 2020, the Maoming Intermediate People’s Court in Guangdong sentenced him to 14 years in prison for charges such as provocation and illegal operations.
Subsequently, Niu Tengyu’s mother made multiple trips to Guangdong to advocate for her son’s rights and exposed the difficulties and repression she faced during the process on X, resulting in her X account being subject to various restrictions or suspensions for an extended period.
The account belonging to Niu Tengyu’s mother was restricted, and the X account “Breaking the Wall” posted, “Regarding this matter, I had a conversation with X’s AI Grok, and Grok personally confirmed the soft blocking and restriction of various domestic human rights accounts and the limitation of anti-communist accounts. This finally validated my years of thinking – democracy in the world is dead!”
“Breaking the Wall” asked Grok: Why restrict the account of Niu Tengyu’s mother, a victim of the ‘Vulgar Wiki’ case?
Grok replied: The account @mrLxr9cWfH7hpUt (username “Niu Tengyu’s mother”) belongs to Niu Tengyu’s mother (online alias Coco) on X (formerly Twitter), primarily used to advocate for her son Niu Tengyu (recognized by authorities as the ‘ringleader’ of the ‘Vulgar Wiki’ case and sentenced to 14 years) to seek international attention and support by detailing the case.
Publicly available information and historical records show that this account has been in a “restricted” status multiple times (label restricted, search restricted, reply restricted, posting restricted), including having posts labeled “sensitive content” or “restricted,” making them less searchable and reducing visibility. At times, only viewing is allowed without interaction, or it directly displays “this account has been restricted.”
At the end of 2021, Niu Tengyu’s mother publicly shared screenshots and accused someone (claiming to be involved) of threatening her with “the Chinese side controls the Twitter Chinese section, so blocking your account is simple.” Subsequently, the account did encounter abnormalities.
Grok explained: X platform usually restricts accounts for various reasons, most of which apply to this account: 1. Highly sensitive content that crosses political red lines. Niu Tengyu’s mother’s account frequently published content related to Xi Jinping’s daughter, Xi Mingze, personal information exposure, the torture allegations of the ‘Vulgar Wiki,’ police coercion, Guangdong Maoming police ‘pinning charges,’ etc.
2. Mass reporting. Posts from such accounts are mass-reported by internet commentators, trolls, patriotic bloggers (manipulative reporting). X’s automated system coupled with manual review easily leads to restrictions after receiving a massive number of reports. Even if not permanently suspended, they are subject to long-term restrictions and sensitivity labels.
3. Pressure from China on the X platform. Although X is blocked in China, the Chinese Cyberspace Administration has long pressured the platform through various channels (direct contact with platform executives, pressure through advertisers, providing reporting lists) to delete or restrict specific accounts. Niu Tengyu’s mother herself publicly disclosed receiving similar threats.
4. Platform’s self-regulation algorithm. Accounts with abnormal follow/follower ratios (many from overseas supporters), high posting frequencies, containing sensitive keywords, being blocked by numerous users, are automatically subject to restrictions.
Currently, the account “Niu Tengyu’s mother” still exists, but most posts are challenging to find through searches, with very low interaction levels, resembling a typical “shadowban + label restricted” status. To view her latest updates, direct access to the link or prior following is required for visibility.
China is the world’s second-largest advertising market for X (through agents), making advertiser pressure highly effective. Several former Twitter employees (who left in 2022-2023) publicly stated that there is indeed a “China market team” within the company, specifically dealing with Beijing’s handed “key account deletion list.”
Elon Musk himself has repeatedly stated, “I won’t let X become a political battleground,” while Tesla has a massive factory in China, and SpaceX seeks cooperation with China. During his visits to China in 2023-2024, Chinese state media repeatedly emphasized that “Elon Musk promised not to let X become an anti-China platform.” Although he did not respond directly, shortly after, a group of high-profile accounts did experience collective restrictions.
Under commercial, informer-reporter, and advertiser pressures, the most sensitive accounts related to China (including Niu Tengyu’s mother) did indeed face a form of “semi-cooperative” restriction. It appears as if aiding stability, but fundamentally, the platform is hedging on both ends – not fully suspending (maintaining a liberal reputation) while significantly lowering the voices (appeasing the Chinese market). This is the reality of constrained freedom of speech bearing “Chinese characteristics” presented by the X platform.
The mainland’s veteran media, Gao Yu, also mentioned a decrease in followers on her X account, stating, “Entering November, my X followers dropped from over 3800 to the 2000s, rose to 2500, then dropped to around 1200 yesterday. I was informed that X Chinese management is based in Singapore.”
The X account “Li Mianying – China Free Daily. Life-oriented Liberal Party,” expressed being subject to long-term semi-cooperative restrictions, “Significant limitation of reach, frequent suspensions, followed by verification requests, unable to write long posts or have difficulties in sending private messages – informing some friends that I might not be able to reply to some private messages, apologies for any inconvenience caused! I suggest Musk to stand tall; allowing evildoers to thrive in your domain is tantamount to declaring humanity can only compromise with evil! Then, what’s the point of taking humanity to Mars?”