China could punish people for 'liking' social media posts

China is continuing to crack down on internet use against its citizens amid massive protests that have been sweeping the nation.

The Cyberspace Administration of China published a new set of guidelines, going into effect on Dec. 15, that would make internet users in China liable for simply liking posts that the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission chaired by leader Xi Jinping deem illegal or harmful, according to CNN.

This comes as street protests erupted in cities across the nation over the weekend against the "dynamic zero COVID" policy. The anti-COVID measure include strict lockdowns imposed by local authorities, mass testing, forced isolation and quarantines, closing businesses, shops, and schools, and maintaining lockdowns until there are no new infections reported, according to the BBC. Tens of millions of people are living under some kind of lockdown, and some workers have been forced to sleep inside factories so they can continue to work while being quarantined.

A social media post that was forwarded widely quoted former Chinese leader Xi Zhongxun, the late father of Chinese President Xi Jinping, as saying "the people should be allowed to speak and encouraged to care about state affairs," NPR reported. The country has two options, according to the news outlet: dropping the policies altogether and triggering an increase of COVID cases, or to double down on their zero-COVID policies, escalating lockdowns and political repression.

As a result of the zero-COVID policies, China has been stepping up internet regulation because of the online public anger against the policies. According to The New York Times, users "are also flipping videos on their side, using filters on them, or recording videos of videos" in order to evade algorithms made to flag content and take it down.

The new guidelines are similar to guidelines published in 2017, but these now regulate "likes" of public posts and other types of comments. It's making people fearful that the nation might begin to crack down on social media even more than it has in the past. 

"The authorities are very concerned with the spreading protest activities, and an important means of control is to stop the communications of the potential protesters including reports of protest activities and appeals of joining them," Joseph Cheng, a retired professor of political science at the City University of Hong Kong, told CNN. "This cyberspace control is an important lesson absorbed from protest activities like the Arab Spring."