China faces social media crackdown as fake accounts threaten ecommerce credibility

There are roughly 337 million users on Weibo, the popular Chinese entertainment-oriented social-media platform. Roughly one-third of those followers have shared or liked Wait Wait Wait, the new music video from teen pop idol Cai Xukun, since it debuted in January. That is a remarkable number, given how fractious China’s social-media universe can be. It’s also almost certainly bogus.

As a recent documentary from China’s state-owned CCTV network suggested, the groundswell of popularity for Cai’s video was inflated by agencies buying support from fake social-media accounts.

While such accounts pose a problem all over the world, they’re thought to total as much as 40 per cent of all active users in China. The profusion is warping Chinese ecommerce and entertainment, not to mention eroding trust among consumers.

It’s true that Chinese social-media crackdowns have a sorry history. A campaign against fake social-media accounts, however, is one China’s internet users and businesses should really get behind.

The fake-follower problem has grown out of the unique role of social media in China. Elsewhere, platforms such as Facebook and Twitter are generally seen as places to exchange information. Efforts to market products or personalities are tolerated at best, and mocked as irritants at worst.

In China, commerce has been far more closely integrated into social media for nearly a decade now.