Protestors against China's strict anti-covid measures are resorting to dating apps and social media platforms blocked in the country to evade censors, spread the word about their defiance and strategy, in a high-tech game with the authorities.


Since the weekend protests across the country, there has been an abundance of videos, images, and accounts of the resistance to China's covid-19 restrictions on the country's heavily restricted internet, with activists saving them to platforms abroad before the censors erase them, according to social media users, reported by news agency Reuters.


Thousands of people from China's major cities and universities are protesting against the authorities demanding freedom from zero-Covid policy, incessant Covid tests and lockdowns, strict censorship, and the Communist Party’s tightening grip over all aspects of life.


The widespread civil unrest started after a deadly fire at a high-rise building in Xinjiang's capital city Urumqi. The Urumqi fire fatalities sparked a flood of angry questions on social media over whether the three hours it took to put out the fire or the victims' attempts to flee may have been impeded by locked doors or other measures.


Authorities denied the claim, but the catastrophe became a focal point for public anger over censorship, propaganda, and anti-disease regulations, videos of which were posted on the Weibo and Douyin social media apps, reported Reuters.


Censors tried to scrub them quickly but they were downloaded and reposted not only across Chinese social media but also on Twitter and Instagram, which are blocked in China.


The news agency reported that the residents of other cities and students on campuses across the country then organised their own gatherings, which they in turn filmed and posted online.


"People are watching and playing off each other,” said Kevin Slaten, head of research for China Dissent Monitor, a database run by U.S.-based non-profit Freedom House.


The foreign ministry said on Tuesday when asked about the protests, that China was a country with rule of law and all rights and freedoms of its citizens are protected but they must be exercised within the framework of the law, reported Reuters.


A senior health official claimed that overzealous implementation of the measures and not from the measures themselves was to blame for the public's concerns over covid restrictions.


Online platforms 


According to Reuters, the protesters who are communicating via the most popular but highly censored WeChat app about the demonstrations are keeping the information to a bare minimum. Locations of planned gatherings are given without an explanation, or conveyed with map coordinates, or by a faint map in the background of a post.


"It was in the morning of the 27th that I got this secret clue: 11.27, 9:30, Urumqi office,” said one person who took part in a Beijing protest planned for that day and time outside the Urumqi municipal government office in Beijing, the Reuters stated.


Many people are relying on virtual private network (VPN) software to get past China's Great Firewall and on to encrypted messaging apps. VPNs are illegal for most people in China.


People have set up Telegram groups to share information for their cities, social media users say, while dating apps are also being used in the hope they face less scrutiny, according to one Beijing-based protester who declined to be identified, citing safety, as reported by Reuters.


A few hours before protesters gathered in cities like Shanghai and Chengdu, online flyers and pinned locations were widely shared on Telegram groups, Instagram and Twitter, social media users said.


People are also using platforms to share tips for what to do if they get detained, such as how to wipe data off a phone.


Residents and social media users have claimed that the police have been checking phones for VPNs and the Telegram app to prevent more protests. 


A Twitter account named “Teacher Li is not your teacher” with almost 700,000 followers has gained lots of attention for posting protest footage from all over China.


On Sunday the account said, "At present, there are over a dozen submissions every second."


(With inputs from Reuters)