BEIJING: Some Beijing residents returning through domestic travel had been asked by private sector organisations to wear Covid-19 supervising bracelets, prompting common criticism on Chinese language social media by customers concerned about excessive govt surveillance.
According to posts published upon Wednesday evening and Thursday morning on microblogging platform Weibo, some Beijing inhabitants returning to the capital had been asked by their neighborhood committees to wear an electric bracelet throughout the required home quarantine time period.
Chinese cities require those arriving from parts of The far east where Covid situations were found to quarantine. Authorities suit doors with motion sensors to monitor their own movements but so far have not widely discussed the use of electronic necklaces.
The bracelets monitor users’ heat range and upload the information onto a telephone app they had in order to download, the content said.
“This bracelet can connect to the Internet, it can definitely record my whereabouts, it is basically the same as electronic fetters plus handcuffs, I won’t use this, ” Weibo user Dahongmao wrote on Wednesday night, declining to comment further when approached by Reuters.
This post and others that shared pictures of the bracelets were removed by Thursday mid-day, as well as a related hashtag that had gained over 30 mil views, generating an animated discussion within the platform.
A community worker at Tiantongyuan, Beijing’s northern region, confirmed to state-backed information outlet Eastday the measure was in impact in the neighbourhood, though she called the exercise “excessive”.
A Weibo post along with a video published around the official account associated with Eastday. com was removed by Thurs afternoon.
Weibo user Dahongmao published on Thursday afternoon his neighbourhood panel had already collected the bracelets, informing him that “there were too many complaints”.
The outcry against electronic bracelets comes at a time of growing Covid fatigue around China, with disobedience and infractions on the rise since a nationwide outbreak in March.
The Beijing government could not be immediately reached for comment after regular office hours.
Besides Beijing, several other regions and jurisdictions have introduced bracelets as a Covid control measure, or even plan to do so, which includes Hong Kong, Henan, Internal Mongolia, and Zhejiang, according to Chinese news site Jiemian.
But data privacy concerns and the usage of Covid monitoring technologies for other purposes, such setting health codes on alert to stop protesters through congregating, has left several Chinese wary of such gadgets and applications. – Reuters