Chinese social media firms and streaming platforms promise to back crackdown on celebrity culture by removing content that fuels fan fights
- A semi-official industry body said major companies had promised to remove content that triggers disputes between rival fan groups
- The businesses also promised to promote ‘socialist core values and traditional culture’ rather than ‘unhealthy trends’
The China Association of Performing Arts, a semi-official industry body, said on Saturday that social media platforms such as Weibo, Douyin and Xiaohongshu, along with video-streaming platforms Bilibili and Tencent Video, had agreed to remove posts and comments that generated animosity between rival fan groups.
The performing arts group said it had met the companies the previous day to discuss industry self-regulations in line with Beijing’s new rules targeting what it deems the “chaos of fan communities”.
“[We will] exercise corporate social responsibility, to properly inspect cultural content, and together suppress unhealthy trends; to be platforms for content that actively promotes socialist core values and traditional Chinese culture,” the pledge said, adding that the outlets would promote “positive energy” online.
The companies also pledged to ban users who posted content containing celebrities’ personal details such as ID or phone numbers and crack down on baseless celebrity gossip, exaggerations, rumours and “malicious hype”.