Chinese Olympian Eileen Gu faces heat for social media use in China

Chinese Olympian Eileen Gu faces heat for social media use in China

Eileen Gu

The 2022 Beijing Olympics gold medalist Eileen Gu had to face fire from some social media users after posting a possibly illegal way to avoid internet censorship in China. Gu was born in San Francisco but has chosen to compete for her mother’s native China as a freestyle skier at Beijing 2022.

The 18-year-old grew up in the tony Sea Cliff neighbourhood, taking ski lessons in Tahoe and went on to compete as an American athlete. However, she later petitioned for a change of nation back in 2019 but clarity on her citizenship is not clear yet.

Gu has been quite active on social media and uploaded many posts on her account. But this drew the attention of many fans in China as sites and apps such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Google search and Wikipedia are blocked as part of China’s Great Firewall.

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“Anyone can download a VPN” – Eileen Gu

Eileen Gu
Eileen Gu

“Why can you use Instagram and millions of Chinese people from the mainland cannot,” an Instagram user commented on one of her posts. “… That’s not fair, can you speak up for those millions of Chinese who don’t have internet freedom.”

Gu responded, “Anyone can download a VPN, it’s literally free on the App Store” with a thumbs-up emoji. Notably, a Virtual Private Network (VPN) can be utilized to mask a user’s location, allowing people to get around firewalls. 

“No matter what I say, if people don’t have a good heart, they won’t believe me because they can’t empathize with people who do have a good heart,” Gu said. “So in that sense, I feel as though it’s a lot easier to block out the hate now. And also, they’re never going to know what it feels like to win an Olympic gold medal.”

Also Read | Beijing 2022: Team US left baffled as Eileen Gu decides to compete for China