Videos shared on Chinese social media first showed protests against Covid restrictions in Urumqi, the capital of the western province of Xinjiang, after a fire at a locked-down apartment building killed 10 people. Now, the protests have swept nationwide.

The Chinese Communist Party, in conjunction with tech platforms, are rapidly trying to take down videos and comments about the protests that have already swept across the country, with anti-lockdown protesters at rallies openly calling for President Xi Jinping to resign.

China is one of the few remaining countries to crush civil liberties and keep draconian lockdown policies.

Several hundred students at Tsinghua University in Beijing have joined the growing mass of demonstrations across the country as social platforms like Weibo and WeChat are desperately trying to remove all evidence.

Crowds are holding up signs calling for “democracy” and “free speech.”