Memes

That's actually kinda cool in a techno dyatopian kinda way.

I think the top comment is the real answer on this.

There is censorship in China, as well as in the west. They just operate very differently.

In the west, outside the US, I think it'd be fairly easy to argue there's more censorship in China. (Even with the pretty depressing clamp down on right to protest, and suppressing of anti-israel speech in many forms happening at the moment)

Equally though, people massively overblow what censorship is actually like in China. I'm not gonna get disappeared next time I go to China just for this comment. Or even if I overtly criticised the government on real-name social media.

tl;dr "China bad!" and "China so good!" are both equally annoying positions to find on the internet.

Reality is nuanced, but that doesn't seem to make people happy.

You fool, the CCP thought police unit are going to backtrace your photo and execute the hostel owner and their entire bloodline now!!!!

No, his face really does look like that

None of the documentation or statements by US officials are consistent, and appear to include a bit of lying. So people are leaning towards him being at least partially correct in his accusations.

In short, they saw the picture and then began an extended interview where they made a bunch of false claims, and used made up reasons to deny him. Then later claimed they used more reasonable argument, which also doesn't really hold water.

I think US customs said it was because he admitted to using drugs in the past and had photos of a paraphernalia on his phone. He said they ignored that stuff and focused on the photo. So it comes down to whether you think one specific customs employee could potentially see something they don’t like and choose to refuse entry for another reason or that customs is being honest and open about the reason his entry was refused and that the people making the announcement fully understand the situation (including the thoughts of the person that examined the photos).

I feel like the latter is unlikely, but I don’t have enough evidence to say either way. I don’t think drug paraphernalia in a photo or admitting past drug use are good reasons to refuse entry either.