HIGHLIGHTS
- China is cracking down on livestreaming and short video businesses online.
- The limited-time campaign will run for two months.
- China deleted over 1 billion online accounts last year.
China's internet watchdog launched a two-month special campaign on Friday to clean up "chaos" in online livestreaming and short video businesses, as part of a larger plan to promote appropriate and legal content.
As a starting point, the Cyberspace Administration of China said in a statement that the focus will be on content that is "pornographic, ugly, strange, fake, vulgar, and (promotes) gambling."
China launched "special operations" last year to remove over 1 billion online accounts and thousands of websites in order to create an internet that reflected the country's socialist values.
According to the statement, the two-month cleanup effort will target multi-channel network (MCN) firms, short videos, and livestreaming tipping, as well as accounts that publish illegal content.
The inclusion of MCN agencies in the clean-up campaign demonstrates the cyberspace authority's growing concern with the companies responsible for much of the viral content seen on Chinese social media.
Such agencies also tend to manage a large number of online influencers, who have recently come under scrutiny for issues such as tax evasion.
The watchdog has warned that livestreaming and short video platforms that fail to define the source and nature of network anchors' or account operators' income, or fail to declare their incomes in order to evade taxes, will be targeted in the two-month sweep.
