Corona virus: drone video from China conquers the network – that is behind it

“Don’t run around without a mask, aunt!” – what is behind this drone video from China

The scene looks like something out of a dystopian sci-fi flick: an old woman looks up in surprise, then in fear. “Yes, aunt, this is a drone that speaks to you,” comes a voice from a speaker. She criticizes the old woman for leaving her house without a breathing mask. wearing. “Better go home and don’t forget to wash your hands!”

Another scene of the video shows how a traffic policeman uses a drone with loudspeakers to remind passers-by on a pedestrian strip to put on their masks: “Hi there, you on your cell phone, put on your mask,” said the policewoman. Another setting shows how a little boy is called by drone: “Run, the corona virus is very dangerous!”

The video, which the English version of the Chinese “Global Times” has shared on Twitter, is currently spreading like wildfire on social media. The “Global Times” is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. For many internet users, the case seems clear: the Chinese regime is relying on modern technologies to build a surveillance state like no other government. The video demonstrates how citizens who do not follow the government’s instructions to fight the corona virus are used to use public-access drones to direct them.

But apparently this impression is deceptive. As the journalist and analyst Carol Yin writes on Twitter, two of the three sequences of the video come from Guo Junjie, an influencer who has 200,000 followers on the Chinese platform Weibo and has already posted several videos that went viral.

Opposite the Beijing Times (Article in Chinese) The filmmaker said the video was made in the city of Baimiaozi in the north of the country. He wanted to use the video to make the measures to prevent an epidemic known.

Chinese Twitter users pointed out that the announcements in the video in the Chinese original have an unmistakably humorous tone, which is no longer present in the English subtitles. In the Middle Kingdom, because of the virus, many people would have to spend the New Year alone at home instead of with their families. Funny videos, which countered the horror of the corona virus with a pinch of humor, are a welcome distraction for the population.

It remains unclear to what extent the Chinese authorities are actually using drones to enforce the measures against the corona virus. (Cbe)