As you may have heard, China’s two biggest micro-blog services Sina and Tencent Weibo have been forced to suspend their comment functions from 8 a.m, March 31 to 8 a.m, April 3. While microbloggers have been restricted from commenting on tweets, they are still free to post their own original tweets and retweet what others have posted.

With one of the most important functions suspended, some opinion leaders feel their rights have been violated.

Wang Ran (王冉), CEO China eCapital, says the loss of the comment function is worth mourning this Qingming Festival:

What we need to remember most on this Tomb Sweeping Day turned out to be Sina Weibo’s comment function. I finally came to realize that our limited freedom of speech is as fragile as the wings of a cicada. I am so afraid that we may wake up one morning only to find that there is no Internet in China. (原来在这个清明节，最需要祭奠的是新浪微博的评论功能。我们终于知道，即便那点有限度的言论自由，也脆弱得如蝉翼。忽然不寒而栗，有一天早晨起来，我们会不会发现全中国不再有互联网？)

Peng Xiaoyun (彭晓芸), a famous freelance journalist, says the clampdown is a 72-hour doom for Sina and Tencent:

Shutting down the comment function is breaking our connections. Breaking our connections leads to obstacles in communications, making it hard to forge online movements, thereby turning our weak connections into non-connections. It is something that can kill micro-blogs. The relevant organs are using administrative powers to intimidate enterprises and netizens.(关闭评论属于阻断联系…阻断联系，制造交流障碍，就是使得网络社会运动难以发酵，本来的弱联系干脆变成无联系，这一招是可以让微博一命呜呼的，有关部门这是利用行政权力震慑企业与网民.)

Deng Fei (邓飞), another prominent journalist and founder of the Free Lunch for Children Foundation, says closing comment will encourage retweets, which will spread information even faster:

Commenting may have been shut down, but you can still comment through retweets, which means you’ll have to retweet as long as you want to make a comment. Retweeting is obviously more powerful in ensuring the viral spread of information. (微博关闭评论，但转发可以带评论，想评论就得转发，转发显然更有力推动信息病毒式传播。)

Wei Wuhui (魏武挥), lecturer at Shanghai Jiaotong University, also believes the clampdown doesn’t work:

Retweeting is allowed while commenting is not. I can’t help but wonder if there is someone in the Propaganda Department taking advantage of the old fogies’ unfamiliarity with the Internet, by simply following the old tradition of “closing comments.”(只许转发不可评论，越来越让我感觉到，萱萱里有个家伙，欺负老家伙们不玩网络，沿袭旧习惯“关闭评论”。)

Others, meanwhile, have seen the recent clampdown as a window of opportunity for those microblog platforms that have not been punished..

Fang Zhouzi (方舟子), says:

Commenting is not allowed on Sina Weibo these days, but still available on Sohu micro-blog. What a nice present sent from above to Sohu.(新浪微博这几天统一禁止评论…搜狐微博可评论，这是搜狐的天赐良机啊。



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