On July 18, 2016, the state sponsored Global Times published an article entitled "Scholar Wants Foreign Capital Expelled From China’s Social Media." Some excerpts:
Zhang Hongliang, a professor at Beijing's Minzu University of China, said on his WeChat account on Saturday that he is preparing to sue Chinese Internet titan Tencent for yielding to commercial pressure to "arbitrarily" block public WeChat posts. Tencent - WeChat's parent company, whose largest shareholder is MIH Group, a subsidiary of South African media group Naspers - recently threatened to shut down Zhang's public account when he released a post denouncing Chinese specialty beverage maker JDB Group Ltd for defaming war hero Qiu Shaoyun, Zhang said.
. . . .
Many people share Zhang's worries, especially after posts and comments criticizing actress-turned-director Zhao Wei for inviting a suspected Taiwan separatist to act in her new movie - including posts by the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League of China - quickly disappeared from Weibo and major news portals, according to news site globalview.cn.
"Netizens were shocked. Capital is so powerful that they can block any kind of voice they dislike," globalview.cn said in a commentary on Friday.For background on the Qiu Shaoyun (邱少云) case referred to above, see Supreme People's Court Model Case: Joking About Dead Heroes Is Defamation.
Here are some excerpts from Zhang Hongliang's (张宏良) article published on the National Revival Web on July 16, 2016 entitled "Resolutely Defend Revolutionary Martyrs, Ban Foreign Enterprises From Regulating Citizens' Speech" (坚决捍卫革命烈士，严禁外企裁决公民言论):
Yesterday morning, July 15, the Beijing Daxing Court issued a judgment in the case of an ultra-rightist elitist and the Jia Duo Bao company smearing and vilifying Qiu Shaoyun. But it seemed as though the media maintained their silence. Previously myself and the National Revival Web had published articles appealing on this matter, appealing for everyone to defend the reputation of national heroes who became revolutionary martyrs by sacrificing their lives to give us the happy lives we enjoy today. But this article that called for the defense of the martyr Qiu Shaoyun did not get reposted on a single website other than National Revival Web.
After Tencent saw this situation, they directly warned the author that they would completely shut down the Weixin public account of Zhang Hongliang if he published another article that was critical of Jia Duo Bao. I have already spoken with a lawyer, and I am preparing to sue Tencent. But while we were speaking, my feeling was that the most infuriating and tragic aspect of this was not the fact that an ultra-rightist had vilified a revolutionary martyr, nor was it the fact that Jia Duo Bao had offered a prize of 100,000 cans of tea to vilify a martyr, nor was it Tencent's high-handedness.
Rather, it is the fact that China's government has handed over to a foreign invested company the power to make decisions about the rights of Chinese citizens to debate China's national affairs, and foreign invested companies get to decide what Chinese citizens can and cannot say.
One can only say that this is China's greatest tragedy.
To allow a foreign invested company to make determinations about the political speech of a a nation's citizens is something without precedent in human history for any independent country. No country, not even those so-called free and democratic Western countries, would permit private companies to interfere with, and make determinations about, citizens' speech.
昨天7月15日上午，北京市大兴法院对极右精英和加多宝公司污蔑和妖魔化邱少云一案进行审判。可是几乎所有媒体都保持沉默，此前本人和民族复兴网曾经撰文呼吁，呼吁大家捍卫用生命换取了我们今天幸福生活的革命烈士的民族英雄的名誉。可是这篇呼吁捍卫邱少云烈士的文章，除了民族复兴网之外，没有一家网站给予转载。
腾讯见此情况后，直接警告作者，如果再发文批判加多宝，将彻底关闭张宏良的微信公众号。本人已与律师沟通，准备与腾讯打官司。只是在沟通期间感到，最为令人愤怒和悲哀的，还不是极右分子妖魔化革命烈士，也不是加多宝公司公开奖赏妖魔化烈士的人10万罐饮料，以及腾讯公司的霸道，而是中国政府居然把中国公民议论国家事务的权利，交给一家外资公司来裁决，由外资公司来裁决中国公民该说什么不该说什么。这不能不说是中国的最大悲哀。
由外资公司来裁决一个国家的公民的政治言论，这是人类历史上所有主权独立国家中前所未有的现象。包括在所谓自由民主的西方国家，都绝不允许私人公司干涉并裁决公民言论。
