By Tony Lin @ CJR.org, March 21

IN THE WAKE OF LAST FRIDAY’S SHOOTINGS at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, a wave of celebration hit Chinese social media.  

On Weibo—China’s Twitter equivalent, with 446 million monthly active users, 120 million more than Twitter—mainstream coverage of the attacks was barraged with comments that expressed anti-Muslim rhetoric and support for the shooter. The top comment under a video clip posted by People’s Daily likens Muslims to “cancer cells” and asks the Chinese government to avoid making the same mistakes as New Zealand. People’s Daily is China’s largest news outlet and the official state paper, and its comments section is heavily censored. Yet at the time of writing this comment is in the highest position of visibility and has been liked by more than 400 people.

Such comments aren’t representative of the Chinese population. Many Weibo users posted emphatic rebuttals [....]