Cyberspace administration targets those spreading online hostility

The Cyberspace Administration of China recently launched a special one-month nationwide operation focusing on key sectors and platforms prone to fostering online hostility.

The operation aims to strictly address issues such as malicious attacks, insults and the venting of extreme emotions, and will focus on key platform types like social media, short videos and livestreaming.

It will target specific acts such as creating dedicated automated accounts, forums, topics and groups to anonymously post mocking, malicious and curse-laden messages aimed at specific individuals or groups through methods like anonymous submissions and remote taunts, the administration said.

Spreading rumors about and defaming individuals involved in incidents, or editing and processing images or videos severely deviating from the facts to induce online attacks and questioning of those involved in such incidents will also be investigated.

Actions including associating certain malicious social events or negative figures with genders, occupations and regions to stigmatize and label specific groups, or promoting discriminatory speech based on gender and region to escalate social conflicts, are also a focus.

Another target will be those who are paid to engage in verbal abuse of specific social media accounts through comments or private messages. Those organizing fan groups to maliciously report others using platform functions, and creating and disseminating content to provoke conflicts and insults in the entertainment, sports and esports sectors, will also be held accountable.

During the operation, the authorities will close accounts and groups found to have severely violated regulations and laws, and punish platform operators who have failed in their supervisory duties, the administration said.

Enhanced scrutiny and management of features like emoji, image editing, video clipping and synthetic content generated by artificial intelligence will also be implemented, it said.