Interesting. Looking at Palmer's claim: "Try saying anything negative about the 五毛, or even mentioning them at all. Your comment will last about 30 seconds and get deleted without warning or notice, CCP-censor style." This seems to be evidence against the broader claim that anything gets deleted, rather than just negative comments.
This sounds like yet another anti-China thread that comes the same day as the new security law for Hong Kong (I'm sure it's just a coincidence).
I wonder: does China comment on repressive laws approved in other countries? Isn't Hong Kong a part of China? Why wouldn't they approve any laws they see fit? Why are the people that are concerned about this never concerned about repressive laws approved in US-friendly countries like Turkey or Saudi Arabia or the Emirates?
And why all of a sudden is everyone so concerned with what China has been doing for decades (something that, while definitely authoritarian, is not exceedingly nefarious either)?
It's a serious question. We all knew how China works, and even if we thought it's something that goes against some of our values, we never considered it bad enough to be a deal breaker.
So what happened that made us all of a sudden become so fixated about it?