In China, expressing overly negative emotions on social media is no longer allowed

After Beijing announced a crackdown last month on social media posts that are said to “excessively exaggerate negative and pessimistic sentiments,” platforms such as Weibo, Douyin, and Xiaohongshu quickly complied, making, at least in the spaces they occupy, the internet a happier place. Concerns abound, however, that removing one way for young people to air out their despondency may cause more problems for their mental health in the long run. “If anything, contemporary Chinese history has repeatedly demonstrated that top-down ideological campaigns can hardly eradicate the social roots of problems,” NTU professor of social sciences Simon Sihang Luo told the BBC.

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