Amidst the COVID-19 response, one unfortunate consequence has been increased censorship. This is as governments around the world amend, control, and restructure the flow of information that circulates around the world.
In China and Iran, this has happened in the form of attacking VPN connections. As a result, citizens are unable to have access to the Internet outside of their tightly structured domestics.
China has also used keyword-based censorship approaches to domestic apps such as WeChat, whereby it is prohibited to discuss topics based on COVID-19. This states and reaffirmed by the Chinese central government.
This included, particularly, the suppression of the hashtag “We Want Freedom Of Speech” and all posts related to it.
During the very first outbreak and the initial start of COVID, Dr. Li Wenliang, a COVID-19 whistleblower, was chastised by local Wuhan police. This is because of sharing information about new cases of the then mysterious new disease. Tragically, he died of COVID-19 complications. Along with this, South Central Morning Post journalist Sarah Zhang posted about how her interview with Dr. Ai Fen. A subject of attempted Chinese state censorship, was relayed and posted on the Ethereum blockchain to circumvent that censorship.
Dr. Ai Fen is the director of Wuhan Central Hospital’s emergency room. One of the hardest-hit during the COVID-19 pandemic’s first phase in Wuhan.
Four doctors from the hospital, including Dr. Li Wenliang, unfortunately ended up dying of COVID-19. She says in a heavily censored interview that she is unprecedented and given severe rebuke for trying to warn other doctors. Firstly, about a new emerging SARS-like disease. Secondly, urging fellow doctors to take precautions.
Ethereum as a tool for information Dissemination
Chinese chat mainstay WeChat removes the heavily censored interview. The Chinese netizens succumbed to a variety of different strategies to try and evade censorship. From posting the interview via QR code, to placing typos to trying to avoid keyword-exact censorship from online monitors.
One group of netizens also used the Ethereum blockchain to post the content. The article publishes into data on the block height of 9648876. It is in the Ethereum blockchain on March 11th, 2020.
In the photo posted by the journalist, the group of netizens was proud to claim that the security of the message was guaranteed by “nodes all over the world.” and that so long as “one [Ethereum] node is running, the article will always be online.”
Chinese writers such as Yu Hua have long written about the “spirit of May 35th”. It is where Chinese netizens elude the controls of the Chinese Internet through clever methods, similar to a cat and mouse chase. Perhaps now, Ethereum and the plethora of blockchains secured by a multitude of regionalized peers, adds another tool.
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