Chinese social media to display user locations based on IP address, including platforms from ByteDance and Zhihu

  • Several Chinese platforms such as Quora-like Zhihu and Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, will start displaying user provinces
  • The move, which is not mandated by law, comes as platforms try to comply with increasingly stringent internet content rules targeting ‘rumours’

Chinese social media are implementing new rules to where each user is located based on IP address. Photo: Shutterstock
Several Chinese social platforms, including Quora-like Zhihu and the domestic version of TikTok, Douyin, announced on Friday that they will soon display user locations based on internet protocol (IP) addresses, a feature that users cannot disable.
The platforms said the measure, which is not mandated by law, is meant to “prevent netizens from pretending to be locals and spreading rumours”. Other platforms implementing the change include TikTok owner ByteDance’s news aggregator Jinri Toutiao, Douyin short video rival Kuaishou, and lifestyle community Xiaohongshu, which all said locations will be visible on user profiles. Zhihu, China’s popular question-and-answer site, said user locations will be displayed alongside each post.
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