China announces two-month social media crackdown

Top internet regulators in China announced a two-month crackdown on social media on Monday, aiming to address “malicious incitement of conflict” and "negative outlooks on life, such as world-weariness".

Beijing requires social media companies to moderate content on their platforms, with posts strictly controlled to avoid anything deemed to be too subversive, vulgar, pornographic or generally harmful.

The notice from the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) follows announcements of penalties this month against three popular digital platforms, which it said had neglected content management duties.

On Saturday, the CAC said it would carry out "disciplinary and punitive measures" against micro-blogging platform Weibo and short video platform Kuaishou, accusing them of highlighting celebrity news and "undesirable" content.

The announcement followed similar action taken by the CAC on September 11 against the Instagram-like Xiaohongshu, known as Rednote in English.

Authorities have not specified what punitive actions are being taken against the three platforms.

The two-month campaign— whose start date was not specified in Monday’s statement—aims "to regulate the malicious incitement of conflict and the promotion of violence and vicious currents", the CAC said.

The statement then listed specific online issues authorities hope to tackle in the crackdown.

They include "exploiting social hot spots to forcibly associate identity, region or gender with other information, stigmatising and hyping them".

In practice, this could mean a clampdown on posts about discrimination. In July, local officials in eastern Zhejiang province warned comedians against stirring up gender discord through stand-up routines that joked about the battle of the sexes.

Other problems targeted by the campaign include disseminating "rumours" about the economy, finance, social welfare and public policy.

Weibo has previously warned against posting "pessimistic" views about the economy, social media users told AFP in late 2023.

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".

That could be seen as a reference to "lying flat" or "letting it rot" culture— widespread phrases used by young Chinese to describe lifestyles that snub gruelling work culture in favour of taking it easy.

The crackdown aims to "foster a more civilised and rational online environment", the statement said.