China’s new set of guidelines for building a ‘cyberspace civilisation’ urges all levels of government to bring ideology, culture, moral standards and online behaviour under control. Photo: Shutterstock
Chinese authorities will discuss efforts to clean and control what people see, hear, read or buy in the world’s biggest internet market at the government-sponsored “China Cyberspace Civilisation” conference in Beijing on Friday.
The event, which will take place at the China National Convention Centre, aims to “develop a positive and healthy internet culture, purify the network ecology, nourish cyberspace and meet the aspirations of hundreds of millions of netizens for a better life”, said Sheng Ronghua, deputy head of both the Office of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission and industry watchdog the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), at a press conference on Tuesday.
Jointly hosted by the cyberspace commission, the Beijing municipal government and the Central Guidance Commission on Building Spiritual Civilisation, the conference will hear government officials and scholars, along with representatives from internet companies and online user groups, discuss topics that include regulation, teenage users, big data and algorithms, according to Sheng.
The event comes months after the Communist Party and State Council released internally a set of guidelines for building a “cyberspace civilisation”. It urges all levels of government to bring ideology, culture, moral standards and online behaviour under control, according to a summary published by state-run news outlet Xinhua.
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China now has nearly 1 billion internet users
China now has nearly 1 billion internet users
The conference is being staged amid a prolonged crackdown on the internet sector and the Big Tech companies behind its rapid development. China’s internet community has grown to about 1 billion users, larger than the combined population of the US, Russia, Mexico, Germany, the UK, France and Canada.
The PIPL is considered one of the highlights under the government’s initiatives further develop the internet and to protect teenagers, according to CAC’s Sheng. These efforts include curbing video game addiction and cracking down on online fan circles, or fan quan – informal virtual communities centred around an idol.
Since June, when Beijing initiated a campaign to stamp out activities that induce minors to contribute money to their idols and engage in doxxing, more than 20,000 “illegal” accounts have been removed online and more than 400,000 “harmful” posts removed, according to Sheng.
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Tightened regulations among key trends shaping China’s internet in 2021
Tightened regulations among key trends shaping China’s internet in 2021
China’s internet watchdog ramped up its censorship agenda last month by publishing a new list of government-approved news outlets, giving the nation’s internet platforms an exhaustive directory of sources they are allowed to republish, as Beijing seeks to increase its control of online content.
The “white list” released by CAC comprised 1,358 sanctioned online news providers and was nearly four times longer than the previous list released in 2016. The approved outlets include hundreds of mobile apps, along with the Weibo and WeChat social media accounts directly managed by government bodies and media groups overseen by the Communist Party’s Central Propaganda Department.
Among the notable exceptions were Caixin Media, The Economic Observer, Caijing Magazine and the 21st Century Business Herald. Caixin was the only one of the four to be on the 2016 list.
This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: ‘Cleaning up the internet’ focus of Beijing conference
