The post below, the latest of several recent translations on the difficulties of navigating WeChat’s unpredictable content restrictions, describes how views of an innocuous post about the TV drama “Swords into Plowshares” abruptly flatlined after political disharmony erupted in the comments section. The historical drama “shows how the chaotic Five Dynasties shifted from fragmentation to unification”: this context, combined with the evident political sensitivity, suggests that the offending comments probably engaged in the traditional sport of drawing parallels between historical and current events.

WeChat authors can try to avoid having their posts torpedoed by unruly reader replies by policing the comments on their posts. The piece therefore shows how the burden of censorship is passed down not only through official departments and private platforms, but also foisted on end users, with incentives to err on the side of caution stacking up along the way. It also reflects the increasingly common trend of turning to AI chatbots for guidance in navigating content sensitivity issues. (In their now highly regulated state, these bots appear strongly inclined to encourage compliance with censorship, rather than subversion.) The post ends with a sardonic spin on public safety slogans: "Ultimately, purifying the online environment is everyone’s responsibility!"

A few days ago I wrote a post on Sima Pu in "Swords into Plowshares," and whether or not they succesfully adapted the character. I guess it got boosted by the platform, because by the next day it had surpassed 5,000 views—not bad for a new public account.

A day later, the views surged past 12,000. Given such momentum, it looked like it should have kept climbing for another several days.

So when I checked on the morning of the fourth day, I was surprised to find that the view counter had abruptly flatlined, like someone had hit the pause button.

Even if it was no longer being actively recommended, it would make sense for the views to slow down, not stop completely.

This isn’t the stock market: there’s no movement limit!

I couldn’t make head or tail of it.

I searched for other such cases and consulted AI, which suggested I check the comments section, because it was possible that the platform had restricted the post because of violations there.

Following this advice, I checked the site backend. It seemed this theory was correct.

Around 10:00 or 11:00 the previous night, there had been several comments that were deleted by the platform for violations, though I couldn’t see what they said. Several more had been blocked automatically.

All those comments were, let’s say, less than harmonious, or a bit extreme, or involved certain political stances.

I hadn’t seen this coming, but probably should have.

As a public account newbie with no prior experience of managing one and relatively few followers, I’d mostly used the default settings. Comments, for example, were all visible by default.

In other words, if a reader leaves a comment, it’s automatically visible.

And if the visible comments aren’t very harmonious, or include sensitive words, the post might be restricted to “contain” the negative influence.

Who’d have thought that one little setting would come with such a special gift?

Fine. I guess my post was just collateral damage.

Let’s call it a teachable moment in running a public account.

My main priority now was to follow the advice and set things right.

As suggested, I deleted the comments that had been autoblocked.

Most importantly, I changed the comments setting to "Only display comments and replies approved by author" (i.e. comments on posts aren’t shown until chosen by the author).

The toggle is right at the bottom of the article settings, as pictured here:

Afterward, I took the opportunity to slack off and take a few days’ break from posting.

That post’s view count is basically still frozen where it was that day before it flatlined.

I hope everyone learns from my misfortune to manage their accounts more carefully.

Encourage readers to keep the conversation friendly, and turn on author approval for comments. If there are things like extreme comments or personal attacks, block and delete as appropriate.

Ultimately, purifying the online environment is everyone’s responsibility! [Chinese]