China’s internet authorities are encouraging citizens to report posts that don’t adhere to these new guidelines as part of a campaign against online content that propagates negativity, pessimism, or defeatist views.
The Cyberspace Administration of China said in a notice on Monday that it had singled out some types of content, including those that propagate “defeatist” viewpoints, such as portraying diligence or education as pointless.
From the government’s early cover-up of the COVID-19 epidemic to criticism of party leadership, China’s censors have traditionally targeted internet material deemed politically sensitive or harmful to Communist Party control.
Users run the possibility of having their accounts suspended and, in certain situations, being imprisoned, while platforms that are found to support contentious activities are subject to heavy fines.
Growing economic difficulties have also been a sensitive subject in recent years.
Additional prohibited activities include “maliciously interpreting social phenomena, exaggerating negative cases, and promoting world-weariness or negative life perspectives,” as well as “excessively publishing or one-sidedly promoting defeatist or nihilistic rhetoric”—such as the statements that “studying is useless” or “hard work is useless.”
When websites, platforms, accounts, and MCN (multichannel network) firms were discovered to be in breach, the regulator directed its departments at all levels to “strictly investigate and punish.”
Additionally, the notification urged everyone in society, including netizens, to report violations, including “malicious provocation of negative emotions.”
The announcement comes after the Chinese Cyberspace Administration said last week that it had penalized a number of websites, including news aggregator Toutiao and microblogging site Weibo, for allowing “harmful information,” including “hype about celebrities’ personal lives” and other “trivial” subjects.
