Photo: VCG
China's top cyberspace regulator launched on Sunday a one-month campaign to improve the cyberspace environment and foster a positive and harmonious online atmosphere for the upcoming 2025 Spring Festival holidays.
According to the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC),
MKS sports the campaign will focus on platforms and services widely used by netizens during the Spring Festival holidays and will target six key issues.
Called Qinglang Operation, this campaign was the fifth time the CAC launched ahead of the Spring Festival holidays to create a positive online atmosphere for the festival, which is of great importance to the Chinese people.
The first issue to tackle in this year's campaign is the fueling of extreme confrontations, such as inciting quarrels over festival galas or sports events, disparaging festival customs, making regional discrimination remarks, deliberately playing up anti-marriage and anti-fertility topics, and inciting gender confrontation.
The second issue involves fabricating misinformation through tactics like year-end reviews, hometown observations, and impersonating deliverymen to create false content, as well as spreading rumors related to public policy, social welfare, and Spring Festival travel rush, generating fabricated incidents and spreading "conspiracy theories."
The CAC pledges to address misleading travel guides that promote unsafe, "undeveloped tourist spots" and fabricate plots involving family ethics and emotional disputes. It also aims to combat the use of AI tools to create false images and topics related to the Spring Festival, which mislead internet users and cause negative impacts.
Wang Sixin, a professor of law at the Communication University of China, told the Global Times on Sunday that technology must be effectively managed and regulated as it can amplify specific types of speech. If such speech is harmful, false, or consists of rumors and misinformation, technology can exacerbate its impact, creating effects similar to the spread of drugs or viruses.
"Therefore, technology must be monitored and utilized to contribute to the development of a more comprehensive social governance system and to operate in alignment with this purpose," Wang said.
The third issue the campaign will tackle is the promotion of indecent content, including celebrity gossip, vulgar livestreams, and short videos disguised as entertainment, as well as self-harming or excessive eating and drinking competitions. The fourth issue involves problems related to the promotion of harmful cultures, such as flaunting wealth and offering paid online fortune-telling and divination services that sensationalize superstition.
The campaign also highlights issues related to attracting network traffic through illegal activities, including fake discount links, refund scams via impersonated customer service, and links to pornography and gambling. Lastly, the campaign raises concerns about consumer rights violations, such as algorithmic discrimination, unclear coupon conditions that lead to discount fraud, and misleading commercial livestreaming.
The CAC requires that algorithms must not be used to promote illegal or harmful information in order to ensure a healthy cyberspace ecosystem. Websites, platforms, accounts, and multi-channel network (MCN) agencies that have serious violations will face strict penalties, and the handling of typical cases will be disclosed as a strong deterrent.
Zhu Wei, a professor at the China University of Political Science and Law, told the Global Times on Sunday that there have been numerous recent instances of promoting indecent and inappropriate content, as well as engaging in baseless hype, many of which have later been proven false.
"Such incidents pose a significant threat to social order and values, making it essential to address these issues promptly and effectively," Zhu said.
