Plus: India’s IT minister urges citizens to dump US productivity apps
Welcome to Computing’s weekly roundup of tech news in Asia. This time we examine a Chinese bid to stop social media and streamers inciting ‘malicious negativity’, a decision by the Indian IT minister to use an Indian-made productivity platform and why a city in Japan is encouraging its residents to put down their phones and go to bed.
The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) has announced a two-month crackdown on social media and other sharing sites to rectify what it describes as “maliciously provoking negative emotions.” The notice identifies some problems that any user of X will be familiar with – the provoking of violence or violent discourse, extreme antagonism, the fostering of panic and anxiety and the over-rendering of “negative pessimism.”
We all know doom scrolling is bad for us, and there is certainly a case to be made for sensible content moderation policies (I hear they were a thing back in the day) but this attempt by China to control social media output looks rather more like an attempt to stop criticism of Xi Jinping and the CCP rather than a genuine attempt to make the internet a happier place. ‘Netizens’ are encouraged to “actively participate in reporting.” The CAC wasted no time in getting started, summoning ByteDance’s news platform Toutiao and Alibaba’s internet browser operator UCWeb to explain supposed content violations.
Also encouraging citizens not to doom scroll, although perhaps in a slightly less Orwellian manner, was the city of Toyoake in Japan, which has issued an ordinance on “the proper use of smartphones.” It steers clear of offering content advice but advises users to limit their recreational screentime to two hours daily and to have an early night.
Elsewhere, the Indian IT minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw publicly dumped his productivity software in favour of a package by Indian company Zoho. He urged India’s 1.4 billion citizens to consider doing likewise in support of “Swadeshi” platforms. Swedeshi conveys the idea of self-reliance and echoes a message given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi which encouraged people to consider locally sourced goods and services.
Australia
- A judge has fined telecoms giant Optus A$100 million for selling services to hundreds of vulnerable customers outside the range of its coverage. Justice Patrick O’Sullivan said Optus’ conduct was “extremely serious and can only be described as appalling.” Source
- WhatsApp, Reddit, Twitch, Steam, Pinterest and Roblox could be added to Australia’s social media ban for under-16s. Source
China
- Alibaba shares have surged in value after the Chinese internet giant announced a partnership with Nvidia as well as new datacentres and AI product plans. Source
- Alibaba’s rise in value should be viewed in light of the overall boom in Chinese tech stocks month which has been fuelled parlty by AI progress and partly by Beijing’s drive for self-sufficiency in chip manufacturing. The rise is part of a pattern which began at the beginning of 2025. The Hang Seng Tech index of the 30 biggest Hong Kong-listed technology companies has increased 41 per cent so far this year, compared to a 17 per cent gain in the Nasdaq. Source
- China’s Cyberspace Administration (CAC) launched a campaign to target social media sites and streaming platforms which “maliciously incite negative emotions”. The campaign even pledged to investigate individual comments. Source
- As part of the drive to clean up the internet mentioned above, the CAC summoned ByteDance’s news platform Toutiao and Alibaba’s internet browser operator UCWeb over content violations. Source
- Innosilicon Technology released a homegrown GPU built on a new architecture. Called the Fenghua No 3 it marks another step in China’s ambitions to reduce reliance on foreign chipmakers. Source
India
- The Indian Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has proposed a draft policy which offers up to 20 years of tax breaks for datacentre developers. Source
- India’s IT minister has dumped his office productivity packages in favour of those made by Indian developer Zoho. He urged the rest of the population to do likewise. Source
- In the latest takedown case, Delhi High Court has ordered the removal of a number of YouTube videos that allegedly defamed leader of the ruling BJP political party Gaurav Bhatia. Source
- An Indian court dismissed X’s “free speech” case against the Ministry of Home Affairs over takedown orders. Source
Japan
- A Japanese city has passed an ordinance that symbolically limits the recreational use of smartphones to just two hours each day. The council in Toyoake say that the primary purpose of the ordinance is encourage the city’s 70,000 residents to get more sleep. Source
- Japan is to invest in new ships capable of laying undersea cables. Currently NEC Corporation, the main installer has only one oceanic cable-laying ship. It’s a sign that Japan is concerned about the importance of communications infrastructure to national security. Source
- New rules banning the launching of new online casinos and the posting of online ads on such sites, including on social media, have come into effect. Source
South Korea
- Samsung has announced a recruitment drive, saying it plans to hire 60,000 new people over the next five years to ‘actively foster future growth businesses. ‘ Source
- Shares in Samsung and chipmaker SK Hynix are soaring on the back of strong sales thanks to the AI boom. This will come as welcome news to Samsung investors, whose stocks have taken a beating in recent months. Source
Taiwan
- TSMC has released details of its new A14 semiconductor process, with performance and efficiency expected to surpass its 2-nanometer platform, and development running ahead of schedule. Source
- Taiwan has imposed a cub on chip exports to South Africa. The move comes amid growing concerns in Taiwan about the increasing warmth of the relationship between China and South Africa and demands from South Africa that Taiwan scale down and relocate its embassy in South Africa. Source
Elsewhere in Asia:
Vietnam: The 20% tariff imposed by the Trump administration on Vietnam (despite most Vietnamese exports being manufactured in US owned factories) could cost the country as much as $25 billion in lost exports, according to a report in Semafor. Source
Indonesia: OpenAI plans to roll out its budget-friendly $4.50 Chat-GPT Go subscription into Indonesia after doubling its user count in India. Source
North Korea: North Korean have been spotted using a previously unkown backdoor called AkdoorTea to target developers across all Windows, Linux and macOS, particularly those involved in cryptocurrency and Web3 projects. Source
