Vaccine scandal sparks outrage across China.

Changsheng Biotechnology Co. a large vaccine manufacturer in China has been accused of corruption and misleading the public for selling vaccines that did not meet national drug standards. In November of last year the company was forced to recall 252,600 doses of the DPT (diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus) vaccine. The Changchun drug administration concluded after their nine month investigation that the company had distributed ineffective vaccines and they are rumored to still currently be in the Chinese drug market.

To make matters worse in July of this year the State Drug Administration (SDA) rebuked the company for providing false production data for their rabies vaccination. They were forced to pay a fine that amounted to approximately $500,000.

Following all of this news a user that goes by the name “Beast”(兽爷 shouye)” on the Chinese social network WeChat posted an article that went viral claiming decades worth of corruption and lies. Unsurprisingly, the post was deleted within hours as China continues to crack down on new and traditional media that paints a negative perception of the government.

Other users on WeChat attempted to keep the post alive by continuing to share it, but even their concentrated efforts were not able to defeat the governments effort to suppress the news. Not wanting the post to be lost forever a user turned to blockchain for help.

Ethereum's role in preserving the public's voice.

A user who noticed that the battle was being lost to keep the post alive sent a transaction on the Ethereum blockchain for a value of 0.001 eth. Within that transaction they included the post, which has created a permanent record that is viewable by anyone. In order to view the contents of the post you will need to view the input data on the transaction as UTF-8.

Unfortunately, the post was not transcribed into English as well. Journalist Sarah Zhang and Karen Yuan provided the following context in their article.

In a conspiratorial tone, it spins a long, complicated tale of shareholders, eye-popping profits, mistresses, and more. At times, the language is unflinchingly direct: “Experts at the Peking University Health Science Center summarized the act of injecting the ineffective vaccines in people in one word: murder.” And it made the story viscerally relevant to readers: “The vaccines they produce are flowing every day into you and your child’s bodies.”

The Ethereum blockchain was also utilized in a similar instance when users completed a transaction preserving a letter written by a Peking University student after she asked for further investigation into a sexual harassment case that ultimately lead to the death of another student. The student's letter can be read in it's entirety in English with the link provided.

Conclusion

During a time in society where "Fake News" is being thrown around daily and citizens are being censored the blockchain is becoming a safe haven for important stories. While many crypto enthusiast are waiting for more prominent use cases to disrupt different sectors in society I am happy to see decentralization at work.