Blocked by censors, China's animal lovers take fight against abuse offline and overseas
Chinese animal rights activists are taking their campaign against animal cruelty offline and abroad after domestic social media posts were censored. The movement was sparked by a viral video of minors abusing puppies, leading to public demands for animal protection laws.
Why it matters
It highlights the tension between public activism and state censorship in China, particularly when citizens bypass digital controls to advocate for legislative change.
Image source, Supplied Image caption, From Taiwan to the US, activists are lobbying for China to pass laws against animal cruelty
When videos showing the horrific killing of a stray dog and her puppies sparked outrage on the Chinese internet in June, Beijing's censorship machine kicked into action.
But what was unusual this time was that it pitted the shocked and angry voices against authorities who said they were concerned about the four boys involved, all of them younger than 14.
China's Communist Party regime tightly controls media and the internet to suppress criticism of the state and to manage public anger. But in this case authorities cited the age of the boys as they urged people to withhold their comments and scrubbed social media posts about the incident.
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