Taiwanese web users are resorting to creative means to make Taiwan’s voice heard on the WHO’s Facebook page, where the World Health Assembly’s annual meeting is being live streamed.
Taiwan has been excluded from the World Health Assembly, the WHO’s decision-making body, for several years due to Chinese pressure.
Due to COVID-19, this year’s assembly meeting has gone virtual, and the WHO now seems to be trying to prevent even the mention of Taiwan on its Facebook page. Comments on the live streamed proceedings that contain the terms “Taiwan” and “China” in both English and Chinese are being blocked. According to Deutsche Welle, a Facebook spokesperson has said that it is likely that the page’s administrators have deliberately had messages containing these terms blocked.
Taiwanese web users have reportedly found ways around these restrictions, substituting at signs for the letter “a” and exclamation points for the letter “i”, for instance, to make sure their views about Taiwan’s exclusion from the assembly are seen.