China’s online censors target short videos, artificial intelligence and ‘pessimism’ in latest crackdown

The Cyberspace Administration of China says short clips that spread rumours or promote incorrect values will be in the spotlight in its latest campaign

Other targets include made-up stories about social minorities, ‘fake plots and spreading panic’, as well as promoting extremism or the ‘wrong career values’

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China’s internet watchdog has announced its latest annual crackdown. Photo: Shutterstock Images

Published: 7:11pm, 12 Dec 2023Updated: 9:25pm, 12 Dec 2023

China’s internet censors are targeting short videos that spread “misleading content” as part of its latest online crackdown.

The Cyberspace Administration of China said on Tuesday that it would target short videos that spread rumours about people’s lives or promoted incorrect values such as pessimism – included for the first time – and extremism.

The campaign would also target fake videos generated using artificial intelligence, the watchdog said.

The country’s top censorship body has been running an annual online crackdown known as “Qing Lang”, which means clear and bright, since 2020.

It said this year’s crackdown would benefit people’s mental health and create a healthy space for competition that would help the short video industry develop.

The country’s best known short video platform is Douyin – the Chinese sibling of TikTok – but content is shared on a number of other Chinese social media platforms, including major players such as WeChat and Weibo.

The watchdog said one of the targets of the latest campaign would be content producers who make up stories about social minorities to win public sympathy. It would also crack down on people staging incidents, “making up fake plots and spreading panic”.