Restrictions have been placed more intensely on the online ministry as China’s new Internet religious regulations took effect on March 1.
Released by the State Administration for Religious Affairs on December 3, 2021, the "Administrative Measures for Internet Religious Information Services" stipulates that only religious groups with government approval are legal to share information on the Internet.
Both registered churches and house churches in China encountered varying levels of supression.
Since the implementation of the new regulation, the month of April saw a heavy lockdown on online religious activities. A church in Henan Province told its congregation to drop out of group chats and not to send any religious messages on WeChat, China’s popular social media platform. A county church in Fujian Province shrunk its digital ministries, while the online mission of a local church in Inner Mongolia was under restrictions.
All the WeChat accounts whose names contained “gospel” were removed. Articles published by Christianity-related platforms on WeChat were often deleted. Owners figured out a way to avoid such censorship — replacing sensitive religious characters with pinyin (the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in Mainland China) or signs.
The WeChat account of the Social Service Department of the CCC&TSPM, the Chinese government’s umbrella organization for Protestant churches, once became unnamed in June and was authenticated three days later.
Many Christian websites were either commanded to delete mass religious keyword articles by their own servers, prohibited to be accessible or shut down. A famous Christian resource named “Jona Home” was closed down permanently after providing services for 21 years.
A Christian professional said that she has been blocked from using DingTalk, an enterprise communication and collaboration platform developed by Alibaba Group, for a year for “posting illegal religious content”.
A university teacher revealed that he was advised by the school leaders not to post any faith-related content on WeChat under such sensitive circumstances after publishing religious content.
4月，网络管控动态明显&集中 （可能时间就近管理办法发布）
线上牧养：河南教会直接告诉信徒退出各种群聊，不要发信息。福建省沙县教会对于网络牧养事工进行了收缩。内蒙古当地教会线上牧养工作受到了限制。
网站：基督时报网站被阿里云屏蔽域名（4月&6月）；创办至今、服务中国基督徒 21 年的属灵资源网站（包含赞美诗、圣经研读、灵修 材料等）“约拿的家”于 4 月 12 日关闭。
中国基督教两会网站在线圣经子页面被禁止访问（5月）福音时报域名先后被阿里云屏蔽（6月先后两次）。 恩典之声，今日基督徒等网站多篇文章和音频被阿里云屏蔽（6月）；
微信公众号：4 月 18 日，福音时报的公众号“福音时代 2021”被封；带“福音”关键字的基督教的公众号全部覆灭。4 月，各种基督教和基督徒发的公众号被删文现象仍然十分普遍。
--微信公众号发灵修文章和微信群接龙流行用拼音代替敏感字。
中国基督教两会社会服务部微信公众号一度被“未命名公众号”，三天后重新认证为“基督教全国两会社会服务部”。（6月）
钉钉：被钉钉禁言一年被告知因发非法宗教信息。
高校：有南京高校的老师在朋友圈发了和信仰相关的内容，学校领导找到他说现在比较敏感，最好不要发这样的内容。
《互联网宗教信息服务管理办法》带来“网络对宗教管控的加紧”
Restrictions have been placed more intensely on the online ministry as China’s new Internet religious regulations took effect on March 1.
Released by the State Administration for Religious Affairs on December 3, 2021, the "Administrative Measures for Internet Religious Information Services" stipulates that only religious groups with government approval are legal to share information on the Internet.
Both registered churches and house churches in China encountered varying levels of supression.
Since the implementation of the new regulation, the month of April saw a heavy lockdown on online religious activities. A church in Henan Province told its congregation to drop out of group chats and not to send any religious messages on WeChat, China’s popular social media platform. A county church in Fujian Province shrunk its digital ministries, while the online mission of a local church in Inner Mongolia was under restrictions.
All the WeChat accounts whose names contained “gospel” were removed. Articles published by Christianity-related platforms on WeChat were often deleted. Owners figured out a way to avoid such censorship — replacing sensitive religious characters with pinyin (the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in Mainland China) or signs.
The WeChat account of the Social Service Department of the CCC&TSPM, the Chinese government’s umbrella organization for Protestant churches, once became unnamed in June and was authenticated three days later.
Many Christian websites were either commanded to delete mass religious keyword articles by their own servers, prohibited to be accessible or shut down. A famous Christian resource named “Jona Home” was closed down permanently after providing services for 21 years.
A Christian professional said that she has been blocked from using DingTalk, an enterprise communication and collaboration platform developed by Alibaba Group, for a year for “posting illegal religious content”.
A university teacher revealed that he was advised by the school leaders not to post any faith-related content on WeChat under such sensitive circumstances after publishing religious content.
Tighter Restrictions on Online Ministry Since China's New Internet Religious Regulations Took Effect
