Just recently, China permanently banned 66,000 social media accounts, censored 928,000, and banned a whopping 1.41 million online posts.
This comes as a follow-up to China’s efforts to crack down on malicious online content.
This campaign started in March of 2023 and targeted accounts that were spreading false information and rumors, impersonating government agencies or news outlets, or engaging in the deceitful promotion of social causes for profit.
Beijing’s goal is painfully clear. They want to clean social media of all bad actors who act in a dishonest or duplicitous manner. To this end, they will target any and all content that is seen as harmful to society.
Their regulatory moves target posts that misinterpret financial information, child exploitation, or even the abuse of social media algorithms.
This streak of bans and censored accounts comes as a follow-up to the harsh regulations that the tech sector has been hit with.
Major internet companies like Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and Tencent Holdings Ltd. have suffered the most from these regulatory decisions.
Beijing’s regulator also said in the statement that they will not stop punishing bad actors who engage in illegal activities on social media.
Furthermore, they will also crack down on websites and platforms that are ineffectively dealing with these bad actors and their deeds, as per the law.
