Monday’s notice from the Cyberspace Administration of China did not specify when the content crackdown would begin. It follows an announcement on Saturday saying the CAC would would take “disciplinary and punitive measures” against Weibo, a micro-blogging platform, and Kuaishou, a short-form video service — and a similar action taken on Sept. 11 against Xiaohongshu, the Instagram-like social-media service known in English as Rednote. The CAC hasn’t specified what those disciplinary measures are.
The CAC said that it would target posts that include rumors about China’s economy — which has struggled this year — as well as fabricated information and “sensational conspiracy theories.”
China’s restrictions on social media are typically much tighter than the moderation methods common on Western social platforms. Last year, the CAC began a crackdown on slang and abbreviations on social media, on top of the database of “sensitive words” censors already ban from use on the internet.
