The "709 Crackdown" is a nationwide government crackdown on rights lawyers and activists in China that began in July 2015. Research from the Citizen Lab shows references to people caught up in the crackdown are censored on WeChat, China’s leading social network.
Explore these rights defenders' stories and associated censored keywords below.
Visualization by Andrew Hilts.
Keyword data is based on Citizen Lab research. This visualization presents one blocked keyword per individual as an example. Contextual data was collected from publicly available articles and reports by Chinese Human Rights Defenders, China Change, Front Line Defenders and China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group. The status of each individual may change as the cases are still unfolding.