Video after
video of
historic anti zero-covid protests
in China
broadcast on the world television
screens everywhere but inside China,
where
authorities censored
all evidence of the protests.
So how did these images manage
to get beyond China's
controlled Internet?
Newsrooms around the world,
including CNN,
have been relying on information
from this Twitter account
and there's only one man behind it, Li,
a Chinese painter in Italy
whose identity were hiding
for security reasons
to go to a hotel.
Horseshoe.
This account may become a symbol
that Chinese people are still pursuing
freedom of speech.
When you post something within China,
it will quickly disappear.
This account can document
all these historical events
that cannot be saved inside the country.
His account quickly
turned into one of the world's
key sources for protest information.
Li says he received
thousands of submissions per day
as the demonstrations unfolded.
Apps like Twitter, YouTube and Instagram
are banned in China,
but people used virtual
private networks or VPNs,
which are prohibited in China,
to access Twitter
and send their videos to leave.
What's the motivation
behind all the work you do?
So how do you plan
to let people inside of China
climb out of the Great Firewall
to see what's happening at this
very moment?
But that's exactly what
authorities want to prevent.
Here's what happens
if you search for information
about any of the protests
on Chinese social media,
you get a notice that says, sorry,
no relevant results are found.
Meanwhile, on Lee's Twitter account,
he was rapidly uploading
videos of demonstrations across China
from Urumqi, Nanjing, Songdo
to Shanghai,
where protesters chanted for
Xi Jinping to step down,
calling for freedom
and an end to zero coded.
And researchers say
the Chinese government
is even trying
to bury information
about the protests from social media
users abroad.
Search on Twitter
in Chinese characters
for cities that had protests
and you get this
a flood of spam and porn advertisements.
The spam
campaign, researchers
say, appears to be the work
of Chinese authorities.
Twitter did not respond
to a request for comment.
Are you worried about your own safety?
Thorough or don't I?
Of course I'm very worried.
I get a lot of anonymous
harassment saying I know who you are,
where you live, and I will kill you.
His parents frequently call him in fear,
he says,
and the Chinese authorities
have been harassing them, too,
making midnight visits
to their home in China.
What price
do you think you have to pay
for the work that you do
to get our whole heart?
This account
is more important than my life.
I will not shut it down.
I've arranged for someone else
to take over
if something bad happens to me.
I mentally prepare.
Even if authorities won't
let me see my parents.
Authorities in China
try to keep the country
in a parallel universe,
but Lee is playing a pivotal role
in breaking that bubble.
Lee spends hours a day on the account,
only taking breaks to feed
his cat
and barely slept
during the peak of protests.
As he sorted and verified
the endless stream of video submissions,
each one urgent and historic.
He's doing the work that he hopes
one day Chinese journalists
and Chinese citizens from within
China will be able to do without fear
and error.
And even
though those protests in China
have been snuffed out by authorities,
Lee told me that every day
he is still going
through hundreds of submissions
and spending 6
to 7 hours on that account.
He told me that he started using Twitter
just as a personal outlet
because all of his accounts
on Chinese social media
kept on getting banned,
and he never expected
to become so influential.
But as people in China
try to find ways
to get around censorship authorities,
they're cracking down even harder.
The government recently announced
that Internet users in China
could be punished
even for just liking posts
that authorities
consider illegal or harmful Erin.
That's really amazing.
Syleena, thank you very much.