Disaster relief soldiers carrying sand bags and eating buns. Screen capture from CCTV. Social media has played a key role in the aftermath of disasters that have struck China. Following the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, China's Twitter-like Weibo was used for coordinating disaster relief work. And after last year's Tianjian explosion, as local media pushed superficial coverage or ignored the event altogether, Web users published and spread first-hand photos and updates. Social media is a place for victims of a tragedy to express their sorrow and seek each other out for support. It's also a place for citizens to publish their own observations and reporting — even if China's strict censors end up deleting them. That's what's happening at the moment with news related to widespread flooding, affecting 26 provinces. So far, around 1.5 million people are displaced and 180 have been killed. The Chinese Communist Party believes that disaster news should be positive and in alignment with their ideology, thus the lack of critical or hard-hitting information. Many netizens have complained about the deletion of flooding news on Weibo. A Weibo user from Anhui province wrote: 皖人救国，无人救皖。都过去这么长时间了，打电话给家里人，放晴两三天，我们那块下面的村镇武警还是在救援，因为水位没有下去，哪怕我有时候评论暴雨说道安徽，竟然会被删评论，呵呵好好笑哦，安徽为了下游牺牲了多少次多少年，收到不公平的发展对待，现在被迫承载洪水内涝，还不能说了？ Anhui saves the country [the province, which is located midstream of the Yangtze River, is a flood discharge location], but no one is there to save Anhui. I called my family, even though the rain has stopped for three days, the water level remains high and local armed police officers are still performing rescue operations. Sometimes, when I make a comment about the terrain in Anhui, the comments got deleted. This is ridiculous, for many years Anhui has sacrificed for downstream cities and the province does not have equal development opportunities. Now that we are flooded, we can't even comment about it? His complaint received many echoes in the comment section: - 都要积极向上乐观装傻，瞎讲什么大实话！小心人家让你话都没地方讲 – 我们这边也是 虽然晴天 但是水位不退 有时候还涨 不下雨 但是大家都开心不起来了 发消极的微博还被删评论冻我账号 真无语了 - We are required to be positive, optimistic and naive. Shut our eyes and talk about the Big Truth! Be careful, they might ban you from speaking. – We are the same here. The rain has stopped but water level remains the same. Sometimes it even gets higher. People are unhappy. Whenever I say anything negative, my comments are deleted and my account suspended. I am speechless. Banned news outlets outside China reported that the floods in Anhui have killed a few dozen people. Hundreds of flood victims demonstrated on July 8 against state-owned Chinese Central Television's (CCTV) interview with local disaster relief officials who claimed that the floods only affected two major streets. Of course, news about the protest could not be found on Weibo. What did circulate widely was news about the People's Liberation Army's heroic and self-sacrificing contribution in disaster relief work. A CCTV reporter summarized the channel's video report on the subject in a Weibo post and added screenshot photos. It was then republished by major news outlets and “civilization volunteers” — Communist Youth League of China members who promote the party's message online: 【为这些最可爱的人致敬！】大雨滂沱里，他们不穿雨衣；为了运沙袋，他们浑身是泥，里外湿透；六十斤的沙袋，他们每个人扛三百个，来回跑六百趟；混着雨水的矿泉水和几个馒头，就是他们日常的伙食……哪里有危险，哪里就有抗洪抢险的战士们。致敬！ Salute to the most adorable people! In heavy terrain, they moved the sand bags without rain clothes and their bodies were covered with mud. Each sad bag weighs 60 catty [about 36 kilos] and they each carried 300 of them and had to move to and fro 600 times; the water and buns were mixed with rain and this is their daily diet… wherever there is danger, the disaster relief fighters show up. Salute! Many netizens were not touched by the propaganda. Below is a sample of the skepticism found in the comment threads: 每次看见这样的事迹，我是真心怀疑，官方宣传用这种模式的所谓“感动”来置换事前的防灾准备不足，以及救灾组织工作不力，是真正在吃那些一线官兵的人血馒头。回回百年不遇，年年感动中国！ 宣传部门的人，最厉害的地方，就是能把一场灾难变成一件感人至深的好事，责任问题可以隐藏的悄无声息！ 最可爱的人可敬，可是我就想问了，这么强大的国家，后勤部都吃屎去了吗？连暖水热饭都提供不了？？ 连一根火腿肠都不给他们，还好意思上新闻，连保护国家人民的人都不照顾不好，真是国家自己打自己的脸 - Whenever I read these kinds of accounts, I feel doubt. The official propaganda turns the fact about lack of disaster relief equipment and coordination work into a “touching” story. Such an act is using the frontline soldiers’ sweat and blood [for political purposes]. Every time they frame the disaster as the most serious one in 100 years, every time they use the disaster to pull at China's heartstrings. The propaganda is good at turning a disaster into a positive story and making human errors invisible. – The most adorable people are respectful.