China
11:11, 03-Feb-2018
‘Amusing ourselves to death’: China shuts paparazzi blogs
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Chinese media regulators have ordered the closure of a number of paparazzi social media accounts, in their latest move against low-brow entertainment.
Show-business blogs producing muckraking reports on celebrities’ private lives including “Zhuowei Fan Club” and “All Star Agency” had millions of followers on microblogging platform Sina Weibo, but they have been shut down permanently after the order on Friday.
Along with Sina Weibo, website operators like Tencent, Baidu, Youku and Miaopai will now be more closely scrutinized for paparazzi content by authorities including the Cyberspace Administration of China, the Ministry of Public Security, and the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television.
Show-business blogs producing muckraking reports on celebrities’ private lives are popular among social media users in China. /VCG Photo
Show-business blogs producing muckraking reports on celebrities’ private lives are popular among social media users in China. /VCG Photo
The decision was made after a series of trashy news stories about celebrities were widely shared and discussed online. One concerned an alleged affair between married actress Li Xiaolu and the rapper PG One, who has been criticized by Chinese state media for lyrics involving drugs and sex.
Another account reported on actress Joe Chen being arrested for drunk-driving.
The Cyberspace Administration said the stories “wrongly oriented public opinion, undermined young people’s physical and mental health.”
In a public statement, Sina Weibo promised to “take the core socialist values as the principle and regulate the spreading of entertainment materials.”
China’s media regulators have been intensifying oversight of online expression – taking aim at celebrity gossip as well as vulgar cartoons and spoofs of historical TV shows.
China’s Cybersecurity Law became effective on June 1, 2017. /VCG Photo
China’s Cybersecurity Law became effective on June 1, 2017. /VCG Photo
China’s Cybersecurity Law, which took effect last June, was the first of its kind after the Central Leading Group for Internet Security and Informatization was tasked with defining China’s cyber strategy in 2014. Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang are both members of the group.
Though some netizens complained that they now have nowhere to read news that interests them, most online comments about the media shut-downs were positive.
“The move stopped some of us from amusing ourselves to death,” said one Weibo user.
Another said actors and musicians should attract fame through their work, but not gossip.