Weibo , popularly known as China’s Twitter, has long been the primary target of strict censorship by the country’s government due to its hundreds of millions of users, as well as its ability to influence public opinion.
However, in the eyes of the Communist Party of China, the government is not censoring enough, and the successful social network has to pay a high price, literally. Just a few days ago, Weibo was fined almost 500,000 euros for repeatedly spreading “illegal information,” which contravenes Chinese laws and regulations, including cybersecurity law and child protection law.
An iron censorship
Still, this is not the first time that Weibo has recovered such a heavy fine from the government. During the first months of 2021, the social media giant was fined up to 44 times for transgressions costing it a total of 2.2 million euros, according to the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC). a government agency under party control.
Weibo then declared in a statement that it “resignedly accepts criticism” from the government regulator, announcing that it had established a task force in response to the sanctions. However, the latest Weibo punishment came just two weeks after Douban, a hugely popular movie, book and music review website, was fined more than €200,000 for similar reasons, on top of 1 .5 million in fines of this type that it has accumulated since the end of 2019 for apparent violations of the law by the content it offers.
Chinese Internet companies have long been subject to government repression , with their executives frequently being summoned by the CAC to “criticize and rectify” them. But it is rare for the country’s government regulators to openly admonish platforms for doing a poor job of enforcing censorship .
As some experts point out, the first rule of censorship is that you can’t talk about censorship. It is not allowed to be disclosed unless directed by the government. By announcing the sanctions against Weibo and Douban, the Chinese Communist Party is bringing the matter to light, but on a voluntary basis, offering signs that such severe punishment against such companies could be commonplace in the country.
In addition to government censors, Chinese Internet companies also hire dedicated moderators to police their own platforms, removing content deemed illegal or inappropriate by the party, ranging from pornography, content that encourages violence and fraud, criticism to the government, or other information that the party considers “politically sensitive” or “morally degenerate”, such as LGBTI+ content. In any case, the Chinese authorities have not specified what content has led to the imposition of sanctions on Weibo and Douban.
