After the stabbing, Chinese social media companies face a crackdown on hate speech Technology

Taichung, Taiwan – For one user on the Chinese social media site, Weibo, the problem was Americans.

“British people make me worry too, but I hate Americans,” read the user’s comment.

For one, it was Japan.

“I really hope the Japanese die,” the user repeated 25 times in the post.

Sexist and racist comments are readily available on Chinese social media, even after some of the country’s biggest companies last year pledged to crack down on hate speech following a series of knife attacks on Japanese and Americans in the country.

Since the summer, there have been at least four stabbings of foreigners in China, including an incident in September in which a 10-year-old Japanese schoolboy was killed in Shenzhen.

The attack, which took place on the anniversary of the false flag ceremony organized by the Japanese military to justify the invasion of Manchuria, prompted the Japanese government to seek an explanation from its Chinese counterpart and assurances that it would do more to protect the Japanese. foreigners.

After this incident, some Japanese companies asked to send their workers and their families back home.

In recent months, a knife attack that injured four teachers at an American college in Jilin has put relations between the United States and China under pressure, US ambassador R. Nicholas Burns blames the Chinese authorities for not providing details about the incident, including the motive of the attacker.

Beijing, while expressing regret for the attack and offering condolences to the families of the victims, stressed that the stabbing was an isolated incident.

“Similar crimes can happen in any country,” Lin Jian, a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry, told a regular press conference after the attack in Shenzhen.

While the Chinese Foreign Ministry and the Chinese embassy in Tokyo did not respond to requests for comment, a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington, DC said that Chinese law “clearly prohibits the use of the Internet to spread extremism, racial hatred, racism, violence and other information”.

“The Chinese government has always opposed any form of discrimination and hate speech, and calls on all public sectors to jointly maintain the order and security of cyberspace,” a spokesperson told Al Jazeera.

Although violence against immigrants is rare in China, an apparent increase in attacks on people in 2024 and the spread of hate speech online have caused concern in the country, said Wang Zichen, a former China news reporter and founder of the Pekingnology newspaper.

“There have been domestic discussions about this kind of speech and how to stop it,” Wang told Al Jazeera.

Despite promises by Chinese tech companies to crack down on hate speech against foreigners, policing such content is far from easy, according to Andrew Devine, a PhD student at Tulane University in the US who specializes in Chinese politics.

“Especially since [tech] companies have incentives not to regulate hate speech,” Devine told Al Jazeera.

Although the algorithms used by Chinese social networks to distribute content have been shared with the Chinese government, they have not been made public, making it difficult to know exactly how hate speech is spreading online.

Elena Yi Ching Ho, an independent research analyst who specializes in media and social media in China, said that the algorithms used by Chinese social media platforms are almost identical to those used by platforms outside the country.

“They want to increase the interaction between users on their platform, and they want users to stay on their site as long as possible,” Ho told Al Jazeera.

In the hunt for users’ attention, it can be very beneficial for Chinese influencers and vloggers to seek controversy through ethnic content, Ho said.

In today’s China, a perceived lack of patriotism can provoke public anger.

Last year, Chinese water bottle company Nongfu Spring had its bottles removed from stores en masse after social media users claimed the company’s logo depicted Mount Fuji in Japan.

Condemnation spread on the Internet to the owner of the company, Zhong Shanshan, who was questioned about his loyalty to China, a charge that was compounded by the fact that his son holds American citizenship.

In 2023, stones and eggs were thrown at two Japanese schools in Qingdao and Suzhou after Tokyo decided to release radioactive waste water from the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea.

Wang said the increase in negative comments by foreigners on Chinese social media was a result of increasing hostility between China and other countries.

“China’s relations with some countries have deteriorated significantly in recent years,” Wang said.

China and Japan have resolved many historical and territorial disputes, including the status of the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea.

The US and China have also seen relations deteriorate in recent years amid disputes over topics ranging from trade and the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic to Beijing’s claims of ownership over sovereign Taiwan.

But hate speech against immigrants predates some of these recent conflicts, according to Ho.

“And Japan and Japan were victims of it,” he said.

Some Chinese bloggers and social media users have traced the root of negative feelings toward Japanese people to what they call “hate education” about Japan, including its imperial-era abuses in China.

Wang said that Japan’s actions during World War II greatly affected China’s national consciousness.

“Japan launched an invasion in World War II where tens of millions of Chinese people died, and that is still on the minds of many Chinese people today,” he said.

“For some people, there is a feeling that the Japanese have not done enough to make up for it.”

Still, some Chinese citizens argue that Japanese atrocities should not be used to justify hateful feelings toward Japanese people today.

“I think we need to change the way we deal with our past if we want to see less hate speech,” Tina Wu, a 29-year-old communications manager in Shanghai, told Al Jazeera.

While hate speech is not only a problem on the Chinese internet, Chinese social media, unlike those in the US, operate in a censored environment where violations of sensitive topics are a regular occurrence.

China has the freest internet spot in the world along with Myanmar, according to a report of 72 countries by the US-based Freedom House.

In 2020, more than 35,000 names related to Chinese President Xi Jinping alone came under scrutiny, according to China Digital Times.

Devine said that while some hateful comments are subject to censorship, content that resembles the official position of the Chinese government is less likely to be removed.

He said he doesn’t believe the pledge by Chinese tech companies to crack down on xenophobia and hate speech will do much to change the proliferation of this content.

“At the same time, technology companies want to avoid taking on additional policing costs,” he said.

Regardless of incentives, social networks with more than a billion active users cannot eliminate all instances of hate speech, Wang said.

“There is so much information and it is constantly being added to that there is no way to finish it or finish it all,” he said.

“Even China’s balancing power has its limits.”

Wang said he hoped that China’s recent trade with certain countries and the country’s rising power and influence would lead to less sensitivity to immigrants.

“China should hope to enter the future with a sense of greater security and confidence instead of being haunted by the memories of the past,” he said.

Shanghai’s Wu also said he hopes to see a reexamination of some of China’s dominant narratives, particularly those involving foreigners.

“It is a big part of the Chinese story right now that we are always victims of abuse in other countries,” he said.

“And as long as that continues to be a strong message, I’m afraid there may be more attacks on foreigners in China.”