China is not censoring World Cup spectators

Not only does China have a strict zero-Covid policy, which is why there are currently protests among the population , but the media is also subject to strict control.
This is said to have even gone so far that in Chinese media the spectators of the World Cup games can only be seen out of focus (blurred) so that Chinese people cannot see people without protective masks. But the videos are manipulated and viewers can be seen on all state-controlled Chinese media sites.

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The videos

Particularly on Twitter, the videos are shared by well-known users, see HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE .

Accordingly, instead of the spectators, other images of the game are always shown, for example the coaches, or the spectators are only shown blurred so that no spectators can be seen without protective masks.

A look at Chinese TV

The idea is actually understandable: Since there are already demonstrations in China due to the strict zero-Covid policy, you might not want to “heat up” the people even more by showing that in other countries there is no requirement to wear a mask at large events.

Probably because of this, and since the media in China is already strictly under state control, many people believe this. That's why we took a look at the Chinese media ourselves.

The white and red logo with the rectangles in the videos, whose colors are sometimes inverted, shows that they come from the Douyin account @CMG_yangshipin . “Douyin” is the Chinese name of TikTok, which is well-known in this country, and @CMG_yangshipin is the social media account of China Central Television (CCTV).

However, the viewers are never shown censored there; on the contrary, there are even videos that specifically show the viewers (see HERE and HERE and HERE ).

It should also be noted that both Douyin, the Chinese TikTok, and China Central Television (CCTV), and therefore also @CMG_yangshipin, are owned by the Chinese state.

the TikTok Douyin videos that were used in the distributed video (yet), so we'll take a look directly at CCTV, since the social media channel belongs to them anyway. And there we were able to find the recordings - but again without any blurring from the audience.

The beginning of the video shows a goal scene from the World Cup game USA against Wales. Here is the comparison between the distributed video, which is said to come from CCTV's social media channel, and the real footage from CCTV:

The second scene in the distributed video shows the Netherlands' game against Senegal - and again there is no censorship filter visible on the state-run CCTV:

The state-controlled broadcasters New China News Agency (Xinhua News Agency), ChinaDaily.com and China Global Television Network do not show any censored videos and photos of the World Cup spectators; on the contrary, the spectators are often shown in series of pictures.

Let's summarize

Videos in which viewers are censored can apparently only be found on various social media accounts, but on all media that are directly under the control of the Chinese state, including on the account of @CMG_yangshipin, from which the recordings from the distributed videos come. the viewers are not censored.

There are certainly some negative things to say about China, but censored spectators at the World Cup games are not one of them.

Also interesting: In football, video evidence is often valid, and this is probably the case with a football commentator on Sky Sport: It actually sounds as if he used the N-word in front of the camera.
This can happen quickly if the pronunciation is unclear! – A football commentator didn't say the N-word on Sky Sport