Beijing requires social media companies to strictly moderate content on their platforms, controlling posts to avoid anything deemed too subversive, vulgar, pornographic, or generally harmful.
This notice from the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) follows announcements of penalties earlier this month against three popular digital platforms that it said had neglected their content management duties. On Saturday, the CAC announced it would take “disciplinary and punitive measures” against micro-blogging platform Weibo and short-video platform Kuaishou, accusing them of highlighting celebrity news and “undesirable” content.
This action followed a similar move by the CAC on September 11 against the Instagram-like Xiaohongshu, known in English as Rednote. Authorities have not specified what punitive actions are being taken against the three platforms.
The CAC stated that the two-month campaign, which did not have a specified start date in Monday’s announcement, aims “to regulate the malicious incitement of conflict and the promotion of violence and vicious currents.” The statement then listed specific online issues authorities hope to tackle, including “exploiting social hot spots to forcibly associate identity, region or gender with other information, stigmatizing and hyping them.”
In practice, this could mean a crackdown on posts about discrimination. In July, local officials in the eastern Zhejiang province warned comedians against creating gender discord through stand-up routines that joked about the battle of the sexes. Other problems targeted by the campaign include disseminating “rumors” about the economy, finance, social welfare, and public policy. In late 2023, social media users told AFP that Weibo had already warned against posting “pessimistic” views about the economy.
Monday’s notice also mentioned “maliciously interpreting social phenomena, unilaterally exaggerating negative individual cases and exploiting them to promote negative outlooks on life such as world-weariness.” This could be seen as a reference to the “lying flat” or “letting it rot” culture, popular phrases used by young Chinese to describe a lifestyle that rejects grueling work in favor of taking it easy.
The statement concluded that the crackdown aims to “foster a more civilized and rational online environment.”
