Picture Credit: Twitter
According to fresh claims, China is censoring its FIFA World Cup 2022 broadcast reportedly in an attempt to hide shots of fans in the crowd without masks on. Many examples of such instances are floating on the internet, where CCTV Sports allegedly show a different feed than the rest of the world during live matches to Chinese citizens.
A video posted on Twitter by author and China sports insider,' Mark Dreyer compares two separate feeds shown in China and Australia during the Socceroos' clash with Tunisia on Saturday. The SBS feed in Australia showed the shots of the crowd, while the CCTV Sports feed was stuck with the footage of the players on the field or the coaches on the sideline.
Other videos posted online reveal CCTV Sports only showing distant shots of fans in the crowd but ignored the close-up shots. A video from Wales' draw with USA also shows the crowd blurred at one stage.
"This is amazing. Due to the backlash from Chinese fans seeing unmasked crowds in Qatar, Chinese TV is now replacing live crowds' shots during games and instead cutting to close-ups of players and coaches," Dreyer wrote on Twitter.
Fresh reports have claimed that a state broadcaster has taken extreme measures after citizens in China were furious over footage of tens of thousands of spectators not wearing masks. Notably, China has again imposed a lockdown due to the rise in COVID-19 cases, while the locals are raging over the same.
C hina is battling a surge in COVID cases that has prompted a lockdown, and other restrictions in cities across the country as Beijing claims to follow a zero-COVID policy even as much of the world tries to co-exist with the virus. In addition, thousands of people in China took to the streets in Beijing and Shanghai on Sunday to raise their voices against China's zero-Covid policy in a rare outpouring of public anger against the state.
