Chinese content platforms pledge self-discipline amid crackdown on fan culture

Content platforms in China, including Weibo and Tencent Video,  have decided to enforce more self-discipline to maintain a “clear” cyberspace environment, said a government-affiliated industry association. 

Following a crackdown on celebrity fan culture after many scandals involving artists, the authorities banned platforms from publishing some popular celebrities and made it compulsory to regulate fan groups.

Regulators need to “increase their sense of responsibility, mission and urgency to maintain online political and ideological security,” the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said in a statement.

Online fan groups influence minors to deviate from the Communist Party’s desired social order, hence, the crackdown. 

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The Chinese embassy in South Korea had earlier this week said, “China’s actions are aimed at all words and deeds that may impact public order, customs as well as laws and regulations, and will not affect normal exchanges between China and any country.” It added that South Korean media was “worried about the impact of cultural exchanges between China and South Korea and even believe that China’s relevant measures are aimed at South Korea”.

After the meeting on Friday, the China Association of Performing Arts (CAPA) said that platform representatives have pledged to promote only “healthy” content with positive values, to keep from using data and traffic as their primary guide and to stop encouraging “false hype.”

CAPA said in a WeChat statement that fourteen platforms signed the pledge, including byteDance owned short video platform Douyin and news aggregator Jinri Toutiao

“The platforms will strengthen their management of accounts and restrict those that spread baseless star gossip or stir up conflicts between fan groups,”  CAPA said. They will also encourage users to actively report illegal content.

“The participating platforms reached a consensus that in order to maintain a clean cyberspace environment and strengthen the construction of online cultural content, companies should carry out more proactive self discipline,” it said.