Chinese online video programmes told to get a licence or pull the plug
Three popular websites ordered to stop broadcasting unlicensed current affairs content that the media regulator says ‘spreads negative comments’
Beijing has tightened restrictions on video and audio current affairs programming on the internet – an area said to be posing a big headache for censors – requiring all broadcasters to hold a licence.
The media regulator has told three popular websites – the Twitter-like Sina Weibo, video sharing site AcFun and Phoenix New Media’s news portal iFeng.com – to immediately stop broadcasting unlicensed video and audio content.
In a brief statement on Thursday, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television said the websites had been broadcasting a “large amount of audio and video programmes that comment on current affairs and spread negative comments”.
On the Nasdaq stock exchange in New York, shares in Weibo Corp plunged more than 6 per cent after the announcement, while shares in Sina Corp fell nearly 5 per cent.
Beijing has been engaged in an ongoing campaign in recent years to tighten its grip on the previously unregulated internet space of audio-visual content and live-streaming.
All audio and video media services have been required to hold licences since new measures were introduced in January 2008.