Weibo is trying to put a stop to China’s extreme celebrity fan culture

Fans of celebrities in China have earned a reputation for zealousness, harassment, doxxing and review bombing

Chinese authorities have promised to “severely crack down on” manipulating celebrities’ social media rankings

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Kris Wu made his name as part of South Korean–Chinese boy band Exo, which amassed a large fan base in China. Photo: Handout

Published: 10:13pm, 20 Jul 2020Updated: 5:43am, 21 Jul 2020

When a new album from Chinese-Canadian pop star Kris Wu swept through the US iTunes chart back in 2018, some suspected foul play when it started topping big names like Ariana Grande and Lady Gaga.

Soon after, posts from Wu’s dedicated fan base on Weibo emerged showing step-by-step instructions on how to boost the artist’s albums on various music platforms, including Apple’s. Now Weibo wants to put an end to this kind of avid, coordinated action from fans on social media.

The microblogging site announced on Saturday that it would be targeting actions from users that include personal attacks in celebrity-related topics, manipulating Weibo rankings and malicious marketing. It also said it will better clarify its definition of “hate mongering” and include it in its community guidelines.

Accusations that Wu manipulated his sharp rise on iTunes were never proven, but Billboard and Nielsen Music ultimately decided not to count some of those sales.

Wu is a big star back in China, where he was born and has 50 million followers on Weibo. His 288,000 followers on Twitter pales in comparison. Even though he had a song hit the top of the iTunes chart in the US in 2017 by teaming up with American rapper Travis Scott, Wu is far from a household name in the country.

Chinese celebrity stans have earned a reputation for their zealousness. Some have been known to employ bots to boost the ranking of their favourite stars on Weibo. More insidiously, they’ve also been known to review-bomb, dox and report posts from opposing fans.

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