- Kyle Chua
China Cracks Down on Social Media Platforms in Bid To “Clean Up” Internet
The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) announced it’s taking aim at social media networks and live-streaming sites as it launches a new campaign that cracks down on illegal activities on these platforms.
According to Reuters, the two-month campaign looks to clamp down accounts that inflate engagement records, falsify sales numbers during live selling streams and pay for fake product reviews, among others. The internet watchdog hopes that through this special operation, it’s able to better monitor and catch these deceptive practices online as the Spring Festival celebration approaches.
The move reportedly comes amid a wide-ranging crackdown by Beijing on different sectors, which include technology, real estate, gaming and cryptocurrencies, to name a few. The Communist Party in 2021 set its sights to “clean up” the internet, having already targeted celebrity fandom groups, minors’ gaming time and social media influencers earlier in the year.
Authorities, for instance, recently deleted the social media accounts of Huang Wei, who goes by the username Viya online, for allegedly under-declaring her earnings and evading 643 million yuan of taxes between 2019 and 2020. The so-called “live-streaming queen” of China is now facing a 1.3 billion yuan penalty, as reported by The Guardian.
The CAC in an official statement said it hosted provincial and municipal bodies in a video conference on 22 December, Wednesday, to announce the new campaign.
"The conference noted that at present, fabricating online traffic, malicious public relations and comments-for-cash... harm the legitimate rights and interests of netizens," the statement also said.
Despite not naming specific companies or individuals, the statement noted that the CAC is focusing its efforts on platforms that host discussions about films and books like Douban as well as social networking sites like Weibo.