(Speaking Chinese) We don't know what information and when the authorities will censor, so we are trying to be faster then the authorities.

(Speaking Chinese) We should preserve the individual memories and our collective memories.

Voices like these from Chinese citizens are very rare.

People who are willing to speak out about the government's attempts to control news about the deadly coronavirus.

They asked to remain anonymous, because what they're doing could put them and their families at great risk.

But these people are part of a new wave of Chinese citizens, fighting to get the message out in a country that aggressively censors information.

We have the right to speak, and we also have the right to save those words.

Accounts or messages like these calling for free speech are quickly scrubbed from the internet.

Or videos like this, showing people frustrated about life under lockdown.

(Chinese) Help! Somebody please come!

Posted online one day, but gone the next.

But the crisis over the coronavirus is changing the landscape, for now at least.

Everyday citizens are preserving and reposting information the government doesn't want out there.

(Speaking Chinese) I don't want... Take away those who lie on the ground.

I started to collect hundreds and hundreds of screenshots.

And then as the outbreak got really bad, I thought it would be important to keep these or to collect and systematically archive this information.

Experts say this kind of digital resistance is happening at a scale they've never seen before.

At the beginning, I was just doing this on my own.

And now, it's about a hundred of us, and we're translating news articles and social media posts that are constantly being deleted right now.

Social media networks like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter are blocked in China.

But internet savvy people use techniques that allow them to repost censored content to these platforms, while staying under the radar of authorities.

They're creating a visual archive by preserving videos like this one, showing overwhelmed hospitals.

And they're reposting people's personal stories.

(Speaking Chinese) Nobody cares about our lives, ordinary people's lives.

(Speaking Chinese) You can't get medicine, even if you are rich.

(Speaking Chinese) You can't get a hospital bed, even if you have money.

Some are also turning to less obvious platforms, including GitHub, which is a site mostly used by coders.

(Speaking Chinese) Many volunteer groups put their archives on GitHub.

(Speaking Chinese) Other groups are sharing screenshots of censored posts from WeChat and Weibo on Telegram channels.

Another taboo Chinese citizens are pushing back on?

They're making open and widespread calls for freedom of speech.

These were triggered by the death of Dr. Li Wenliang.

He was an early whistleblower who warned about the virus, and was punished by officials for speaking out.

He died in early February from the coronavirus.

Right after his death, the hashtag "I want freedom of speech" started to trend on Weibo, a Chinese social media site.

Then, it was quickly censored by the government.

(Speaking Chinese) On the night of Le Wenliang's death, it seemed like everyone on Weibo suddenly realized that freedom of speech is important and that we want to speak.

The censorship that followed just further kind of galvanized us, and made us feel that...

really the government prioritizes censorship and suppressing free speech rather than acknowledging that they've made a mistake in arresting him.

Dr. Li's become an icon in the online fight for freedom of speech between censors and citizens.

So, who's winning?

For now, citizens are staying a step ahead of the authorities.

But a renewed government crackdown could test the strength of this digital resistance.