China’s Olympic team was hardly immune, either. Wu Yanni, a hurdler who failed to qualify for the final in her event, was attacked for supposedly caring too much about her looks. And Chen Meng, a table tennis legend who successfully defended her championship against her more popular teammate, Sun Yingsha, became the target of so much online abuse by Sun’s fans that moderators on social media platform Weibo had to step in, deleting more than 12,000 pieces of “illegal content” and banning over 300 accounts.
mandag 26. august 2024
Can China Curb the Online Harrassment of Women?
Online violence and coordinated troll campaigns are not exactly new, but the just-concluded Paris Olympics offer a powerful reminder that no one is safe from keyboard warriors. Just to name one high-profile incident, the toxicity surrounding a judging controversy involving American gymnast Jordan Chiles and Romanian Ana Bărbosu drove both athletes off social media.
China’s Olympic team was hardly immune, either. Wu Yanni, a hurdler who failed to qualify for the final in her event, was attacked for supposedly caring too much about her looks. And Chen Meng, a table tennis legend who successfully defended her championship against her more popular teammate, Sun Yingsha, became the target of so much online abuse by Sun’s fans that moderators on social media platform Weibo had to step in, deleting more than 12,000 pieces of “illegal content” and banning over 300 accounts.
China’s Olympic team was hardly immune, either. Wu Yanni, a hurdler who failed to qualify for the final in her event, was attacked for supposedly caring too much about her looks. And Chen Meng, a table tennis legend who successfully defended her championship against her more popular teammate, Sun Yingsha, became the target of so much online abuse by Sun’s fans that moderators on social media platform Weibo had to step in, deleting more than 12,000 pieces of “illegal content” and banning over 300 accounts.
