Cyber Space Management Bureau Launches Special Campaign for One Month
Chinese authorities are tightening internet censorship ahead of the Lunar New Year. China begins managing public sentiment online around the holiday when families gather, targeting excessive displays of wealth and mukbang (eating broadcasts) among other content.
On the 29th, China Central Television (CCTV) reported that the Cyberspace Administration of China will launch a special campaign called "Improving the Internet Environment for the Lunar New Year" for one month starting at the end of this month. The Cyberspace Administration stated, "We will focus on the platforms and service types commonly used by netizens during the Lunar New Year period to address prominent online issues," adding, "We aim to purify the environment and create a positive, civilized, and healthy online atmosphere for the majority."
Regarding the targets of the crackdown, the Cyberspace Administration specified, "Acts such as luring people to unsafe locations or closed areas by exploiting the Lunar New Year travel peak, producing bizarre videos that violate public order and good morals such as vulgar swearing and self-harm broadcasts," and "excessive eating with strange ingredients or stimulating seasonings, revealing abnormal diet information, wasting food, or threatening health" are included.
It also stated, "Content that provokes criticism or incites hostile emotions related to Lunar New Year galas, movies, TV shows, and famous celebrities, as well as negatively stigmatizing specific groups, must be corrected." The crackdown will also target false information, malicious marketing, exaggerated publicity, fabricating and spreading information about public policies, social life, and traffic issues that disrupt social order, and fictionalizing conflicts or contradictions between husband and wife, in-laws, teachers and students to gain traffic and spread harmful values.
Furthermore, participation in gambling or online scams, posting illegal information, publishing content that flaunts wealth, and providing paid fortune-telling or divination services that advocate feudal superstitions and bad customs will also be subject to regulation.
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