On August 21, the China Internet Security and Information Office got a new director, Zhuang Rongwen. New censorship is now being directed against new social media in the form of short video platforms.
Since July, the Office has been urging all major short video platforms to impose “self-censorship.” So far more than 1.1 million accounts that violated the rules have been blocked, 8.1 million instances of “harmful” short videos have been deleted and 19 short video apps have been disciplined.
The Office also called for a meeting with 36 commercial short video platforms to give them guidelines. One example is that they must ensure “socialism’s core values” are reflected in their production. The Office also encouraged government and traditional media entering this new media platform “to occupy the new frontier of propaganda actively.” As a good example, it cited the “Youth League” setting up an account in the popular “Dou Yin” platform. The Dou Yin platform was one of the most popular social media in China. It has reported having .5 billion active users globally with overseas versions in Japan, Thailand, India, and Germany, among other countries.
On Aug 21, the Office together with Public Security Ministry issued a new notice. Short videos need to use “real names.” It also started to “blacklist” those (“rule-breaking”) broadcasters.
Source: Deutsche Welle, August 24, 2018
https://p.dw.com/p/33hQ9