Unplugging Internet and cell phone service has become standard practice for dealing with civil unrest. The government did so in March over worries about renewed anti-Chinese demonstrations in Tibetan areas.
Though officials usually prefer to keep silent about such tactics, Urumqi’s top Communist Party official, Li Zhi (栗智), told a news conference on Tuesday that the Internet was deliberately cut off in parts of the city. He said it was done “in order to quench the riot quickly and prevent violence from spreading to other places.”
Such censorship does not quiet unrest for long, but instead ends up giving rumors more credence than they deserve, Xiao said.
“The more you try to police the Internet, and delete information, the more those rumors become some kind of truth and people just pick what they want to believe,” Xiao said. “That’s the negative direct consequences of such tight information control.”
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