launcht Blockchain seems to have found its way through almost all core industries and business units. According to latest reports, Blockchain has found its new application in China — combating censorship. It all started with a #MeToo moment at a school campus in China. Xin Yue, a senior at the prestigious Peking University, and seven students filed a request for information disclosure on a sexual harassment case involving a former professor.
Then when things turned sour, Yue accused the school of trying to silence her, making her delete information about the request and even asking her parents to confine her to her home. The letter went viral on social media in China, and soon people found workarounds to avoid censorship, putting the text into an image. Frustrated by the censorship, some people turned to blockchain technology — encoding the English and Chinese version of the letter on the Ethereum blockchain, which cost about 50 cents.
Blockchains are designed to be immutable. Only a party controlling more than 50% of the network’s computing power can change the transaction and attached information, which is not very likely. So people believe that no one can change the letter and everyone can read it. Ever since blockchain went mainstream and became a major application for cryptocurrencies, blockchain has rediscovered an effective tool to dodge online censorship in China. The blockchain transaction with Yue’s letter embedded in it has gathered nearly 200 comments, most of which praising the innovation of the method.
