A Frozen Document in China Unleashes a Furor Over Privacy

by: Wenxin Fan
2022-07-15
Source: Wall Street Journal
07/15/2022

white Samsung Galaxy smartphone on top of blue place mat near blue click pen by Lacie Slezak is licensed under Unsplash unsplash.com

HONG KONG—At noon on June 25, aspiring Chinese writer Miffy Gu navigated as she often did to an immense online document she used to store unpublished chapters of her serialized novel and clicked on it with her mouse.

What happened next would soon unite millions of Chinese internet users in a fit of fear and frustration over the newest government encroachment into their digital lives.

Rather than open the file, Ms. Gu’s writing software presented her with a warning message: “This document may contain forbidden content. Access has been suspended.”

Source: Wall Street Journal