China’s internet watchdog on Friday launched a two-month special campaign to clean up the “chaos” in online livestreaming and short video businesses, part of a broader plan to clean up what it deemed fair and legal content.
China’s Cyberspace Administration said in a statement, as a starting point, the focus will be on improving “obscene, ugly, weird, fake, obscene and gambling-promoting content”.
Last year, China launched “special ops” to remove more than 1 billion online accounts and thousands of websites to create an Internet that reflects the country’s socialist values.
According to the statement, the two-month cleanup exercise will target multi-channel network (MCN) firms, short videos and livestreaming tipping, while accounts publishing illegal content will also be targeted.
The involvement of MCN agencies in the cleanup campaign highlights the growing concern of the cybersecurity authority with the firms behind most of the viral content seen on Chinese social media.
Such agencies also manage several online influencers, which have come under scrutiny in recent months over issues such as tax evasion.
The watchdog has warned that livestreaming and short video platforms that fail to define the source and nature of income of network anchors or account operators, or fail to declare their income to avoid taxes, will be targeted. Will go
© Thomson Reuters 2022