- A YouTube channel called “RutersXiaoFanQi” vanished from the platform on Monday after years of satirizing Chinese dictator Xi Jinping.
- Internet freedom advocates are concerned the channel was taken down by Chinese Communist Party censors who weaponized YouTube’s copyright infringement rules.
- Radio Free Asia (RFA) noted on Tuesday that the final video from the channel appears to have been a spoof “news broadcast” that mocked Xi for attempting to become an “emperor” and for claiming honorary university degrees when his actual education is at “elementary school level.”
- A former contributor to RutersXiaoFanQi – whose odd name mashes a misspelled “Reuters” together with a Chinese phrase that means “humiliation” – told RFA the channel was killed by claims it used copyrighted music in its video clips.
