Hangzhou Lianke Meixun Biomedical Technology Co., the company behind the health and science fact-checking website DXY, had some of its social media accounts censored.
Some of the company’s Weibo accounts have been suspended for “violating regulations.” On other social media platforms, the company has not posted since Monday. The censored accounts combined had 8.69 million followers.
The censorship comes a few months after DXY published an article claiming that Lianhua Qingwen, a form of traditional Chinese medicine, does not prevent Covid infection. The government had been promoting the medicine for Covid treatment and prevention and even distributed it for free during the recent lockdown in Shanghai.
The article, which was removed, was heavily shared on Chinese social media, with some seeing it as an attack on traditional medicine.
Beijing has been promoting the treatment even abroad. It has sent traditional Chinese medicine experts to Cambodia and to Pakistan for clinical trials.
It is not the first time Beijing has censored criticisms of traditional Chinese medicine. A few months ago, Wang Sicong (son of billionaire Wan Jianlin) was banned from Weibo after posting a video questioning claims made by the maker of Lianhua Qingwen, Yiling Pharmaceuticals.
