Digital campaign on Weibo: #IamGay# How about you?

            In China, digital activism never seems to have their own voice in the face of central government censorship. But even so, those short-lived online movements still sparkle a lasting mark on everyone’s minds.

On the evening of 13 April 2018, China's largest and most popular social media platform, Weibo, posted an announcement on its official account: Weibo administrators would be launching a three-month cleanup campaign targeting content creation defined as pornographic, violent, and homophobic-related. The statement quickly provoked an uproar among Weibo users, who were outraged by its unabashedly anti-homosexual orientation, especially as it even compared sexuality to violence and pornography.

Within four hours after this announcement, the original post soon generated 60,000 retweets and over 10,000 comments; however, as always, the comments section was set to be inaccessible, and only the texts from the retweets were visible.

Just when it was thought to be another, limited-to-the-moment revolt that would be quickly wiped off by the censors, an openly out celebrity on Weibo posted a tweet with the hashtag: 

#IamGay# How about you?

#我是同性恋# 你呢？

Although it was later revealed, according to an interview with this influencer, that he had simply swiped the announcement on his way to a party, and came up with the hashtag off the cuff, hoping that even this couldn’t lead to any substantial change, it would allow people to have some fun in the virtual world using the hashtag. But what he didn't expect was that his tweet would be retweeted nearly 20,000 times in the next 12 hours, and the hashtag #IamGay# would have 600 million reads in the following day.

For the first time in the history of digital activism in China, the topic relating LGBTQ+ community gathered such discussion and attention. In the online space created by the hashtag #IamGay#, countless LGBTQ+ groups actively use it to tell their experiences of being a minority in China and interact with others by leaving comments. Perhaps unintentionally, but in the original tweet posted by the influencer, the hashtag was born out of a context carrying an interactive meaning, inviting people to share their own stories by asking: I am gay. How about you?

And many users answered the question with their stroies of struggles and conflicts with society. Here are some of the tweets with the hashtag:

• #IAmGay# Me too… I am an ostrich, hooked by my own lies and deceiving others as well. I pretend to be objective and rational, yet inside me is a coward! Seeing people so brave makes me cry…I am really scared. I am scared to death, fuck! (@killshort) 

• #IAmGay# I do not break the law; I do not commit a crime. I work hard, love my life, and contribute what I can to society. I love to make friends with people identified with different genders and sexualities. I love my parents and my family. I am a decent, moral human being. I am a normal, biological male. I like men. I am gay. (@Elwin)

• #IAmGay# As a bisexual, I wonder when we can learn from Euro-America, Australia, and Taiwan. @WeiboManager, LGBT people on the mainland not only exist but also go beyond your imagination. Clean up? Daydreaming. (@subedespaci)

The online protest then turned out to last less than a day. 

On the next afternoon, Weibo administrators emptied the hashtag #IamGay#, and active users with this hashtag were all cancelled off the platform. As for the influencer who started the revolution, he tried to register new accounts using different mobile phones and email addresses to keep supporting the movement. But no matter how many different online identities he used, they were quickly detected and erased by the censorship system.

Since the Arab Spring, digital technology has dramatically facilitated the assertion of human rights, especially through hashtag activisms on social media. Furthermore, the hashtag offers users a virtual community-like presence, and the conditions for joining are pretty straightforward: Access to the online hashtag. 

With the help of social networking platforms, users have become more connected than ever before. The functions of commenting, retweeting and liking have become new approaches to interpersonal interactions, driving the rapid development of the online community and information exchange.

Returning to the hashtag's original text: #IamGay# How about you? The hashtag designates a particular group identity, and people come together by sharing personal experiences of trauma and a common purpose of resistance. In this process, they narrate their own identity stories while infected by others' feelings. As a result, the usage of hashtag restate the individuals' identities and creates a tight connection of group identity through shared feelings.

Although this online movement did not live long and did not penetrate the general public, yet embodies the potential power of online hashtags. At the same time, we must confront the existing state censorship and capital power behind digital platforms. 

Digital activism in China still has a long-struggling path to go; nevertheless, it is a promising path.