â–²China’s top cyber authority removed nearly 10,000 self-media accounts on Monday in one of its largest internet purification campaigns. Social media platform such as Weibo and WeChat followed the lead and vowed to remove politically harmful and pornographic content. File photo: VCG
According to the official WeChat account of Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) Thursday, in order to effectively solve prominent problems in Quora-like knowledge channels, which allow users to ask and answer questions, and strengthen standardized management, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Zhejiang and four other provinces and cities have been carrying out a centralized special rectification since September.
According to the announcement, the rectification focuses on the issues of setting topics, poor-quality knowledge published on the site and the qualification of so-called experts.
It also ordered 20 key knowledge exchange platforms, including Zhihu, a question-and-answer website, Douban, a Chinese social networking service website, Knowledge Planet, a connection tool for content creators and fans, and Twitter-like social media platform Weibo to carry out self-examination and self-correction.
In September, the CAC announced that there was a large amount of undesirable information and actions that induced minors to attempt to boost celebrity popularity, spend large amounts of money, and incite juvenile fan groups to abuse each other on six social media platforms including Weibo, Douban and Douyin.
Weavi, a writing community that allows writers to create content freely and connect with readers directly, was confirmed to have been spreading obscene novels in September.
“There are many hidden accounts on WeChat, Toutiao, a Chinese news and information content platform, and Bilibili, a Chinese YouTube-like video sharing website that are spreading historical nihilism,” one netizen commented.
“For example, the WeChat account named ‘History of cold weapons’ assumes that if Timur had attacked China during the Ming Dynasty’s Yongle reign, China would not be its rival, depicting history with typical historical nihilism and making every effort to smear Chinese history,” the netizen added.
During the rectification period, the relevant platforms should consciously accept social supervision, issue announcements in prominent places, and report to local information departments in a timely manner.