One of China’s most renowned investigative journalists, Wang Zhi’an, has had his Twitter account permanently suspended. Wang had been using the social media platform to report on sensitive issues from his current base in Tokyo, Japan.
Wang, who was once a prominent on-air personality at China’s state broadcaster CCTV, exposed corruption, land seizures, and medical malpractice in China, with millions of viewers and a powerful platform. However, his work led to his blacklisting and forced him to leave his homeland. Despite this, he started his online news report business on YouTube and Twitter, both of which are banned in China.
On April 23, 2023, Wang’s Twitter account, @wangzhian8848, was permanently suspended. He expressed on other social media platforms that he did not receive any notification from Twitter regarding the reason for the suspension. Many of his Twitter followers are concerned about the consistency of Twitter’s policies and hope that the company can provide an explanation and fulfill their commitment to community guidelines.
Twitter’s community guidelines state that if an account is permanently suspended, the user will be notified of the specific policy they violated and which content breached the community guidelines. However, it is currently unclear what policy violation led to Wang’s suspension.
Wang’s case highlights the ongoing challenges faced by journalists in China, where media is tightly controlled, and critical reporting is often met with severe consequences. Despite being in exile, Wang continues to report on sensitive topics, and his suspension from Twitter underscores the challenges faced by journalists who attempt to report critically from outside China.
CNN has reached out to Wang for comment on the matter but has not received a response at this time.
Note: the above is an AI generated CNN news.
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