• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
  • HOME
  • ABOUT CHINA
    • NEWS
    • TESTIMONIES
    • OP-EDS
    • FEATURED
    • GLOSSARY
    • CHINA PERSECUTION MAP
  • FROM THE WORLD
    • NEWS GLOBAL
    • TESTIMONIES GLOBAL
    • OP-EDS GLOBAL
    • FEATURED GLOBAL
  • INTERVIEWS
  • DOCUMENTS AND TRANSLATIONS
    • DOCUMENTS
    • THE TAI JI MEN CASE
    • TRANSLATIONS
    • EVENTS
  • ABOUT
  • EDITORIAL BOARD
  • TOPICS

Bitter Winter

A magazine on religious liberty and human rights

three friends of winter
Home / China / Testimonies China

China’s New Crackdown Targets “Self-Media”

03/22/2023Zhou Kexin |

As recent scandals and the COVID protests demonstrated, allowing non-Party-approved news to be posted on social media is something the regime cannot tolerate. 

by Zhou Kexin

Anti-self-media propaganda by the CCTV network, which is directly controlled by the Central Propaganda Department of the CCP. Screenshot.
Anti-self-media propaganda by the CCTV network, which is directly controlled by the Central Propaganda Department of the CCP. Screenshot.

On March 12, while the Two Sessions were coming to their conclusion, the Cyberspace Administration of China launched a new crackdown operation on the Internet, this time targeting “self-media,” by which it means news independently created and posted on social media or the Web by independent netizens who are not registered as journalists. The Administration laments that some “self-media” producers imitate the presentations and style of mainline media to deceive readers and enhance their credibility, but the problem as usual is that through “self-media,” comments and news the CCP does not like can be published and circulated.

The directive should be implemented for a cleaning up period of two months by the Internet Information Offices of the CCP Committees of each province, autonomous region, and municipality directly under the Central Government, and the Internet Information Office of the CCP Committee of Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (a state within the state in Xinjiang). 

Quoting Xi Jinping, who is obsessed by the CCP’s lack of success in controlling the web and often sees a “chaos” there, the directive calls these offices to “rectify the chaos of self-media, solve deep-seated problems such as the distortion of information content by self-media and … maintain a good order in the dissemination of online information content.” Social media and other platforms are expected to cooperate through preventive and successive control of what is posted. The aim is to “resolutely crack down on prominent issues such as self-media spreading rumors,” “harmful information and fake news.”

What happens, the CCP says, is that “self-media” “fabricate false events, bizarre stories, falsify the causes, details, progress or results of certain incidents, and create rumors out of nothing.” Other “self-media” may subtly spread prohibited content by fabricating false “Chinese classics or texts by early revolutionaries.”

Sectors where information should not escape control, the directive says, include “public policy, the macroeconomic situation, major disasters, hotly debated incidents, etc., taking them out of context, distorting their interpretation, distorting right and wrong to launch attacks, exaggerating tragedy and inciting confrontation, creating harmful information that damages the image of the CCP and the government and interferes with the economic and social development.”

Even when the information is true, “malicious hype” may still be used to criticize or damage the Party and the government. And even when the “self-media” simply reproduce information officially approved by the CCP, they may still cause harm by including “improper comments, non-approved interpretations, or one-sided misinterpretations of government policies or hotly debated events.”

The repeated references to “hotly debated events” show that the CCP is well aware of the damage caused by hundreds of thousands of “self-media” reports about cases such as the “chained mother of eight” and the disappearance of student Hu Xinyu. And of course “self-media” also offered non-official information about the COVID quarantines and related protests.

Whether Xi’s dream of an Internet totally controlled by the CCP, where all news would be official Party-approved news, will come true remains to be seen. But certainly China is implementing the most massive system of surveillance and control the world has ever seen.

Tagged With: Censorship, Chinese Communist Party

Related articles

  • Another Scandal: France’s Cultural (and Anti-Cult) Diplomacy Is Financed by the Chinese Communist Party

    Another Scandal: France’s Cultural (and Anti-Cult) Diplomacy Is Financed by the Chinese Communist Party

  • Christian Students Asked to Study 20th Congress and Celebrate “Heroes” Who Betrayed the Church

    Christian Students Asked to Study 20th Congress and Celebrate “Heroes” Who Betrayed the Church

  • Hebei: Friends Pray in Your Home, the CCP Cuts Off Your Water and Electricity

    Hebei: Friends Pray in Your Home, the CCP Cuts Off Your Water and Electricity

  • Hong-Kong-Style National Security Law Comes to Macau

    Hong-Kong-Style National Security Law Comes to Macau

Keep Reading

  • Coming Soon in China: New (and Worse) “Administrative Measures for Religious Activity Venues”
    Coming Soon in China: New (and Worse) “Administrative Measures for Religious Activity Venues”

    The new measures will replace those of 2005, and introduce stricter provisions making CCP propaganda at all places of worship mandatory.

  • The “Buddhist and Taoist Clergy Database,” Another CCP Imposture
    The “Buddhist and Taoist Clergy Database,” Another CCP Imposture

    Advertised as a tool against fraudulent “false monks,” it will in fact also help cracking down on Buddhist monks and Taoist priests not controlled by the CCP.

  • ChatGPT-Type Chatbots in China: Allowed Only if They Provide “Socialist” Content 
    ChatGPT-Type Chatbots in China: Allowed Only if They Provide “Socialist” Content 

    A new regulation tries to prevent Chinese from obtaining texts not approved by the CCP through artificial intelligence.

  • Sichuan Tibetan Writer Sentenced to 4 Years for Defending Tibetan Language
    Sichuan Tibetan Writer Sentenced to 4 Years for Defending Tibetan Language

    Zangkar Jamyang was declared a “separatist” for having posted an article on the Internet.

Primary Sidebar

Support Bitter Winter

Learn More

Follow us

Newsletter

Most Read

  • Chinese Muslims Told Mosques Should Preach Communism Too by Ma Wenyan
  • Hebei: Friends Pray in Your Home, the CCP Cuts Off Your Water and Electricity by Lai Mingxia
  • China’s “Query System for Islamic, Catholic, and Christian Clergy,” Another Tool for Repression by He Yuyan
  • Christian Students Asked to Study 20th Congress and Celebrate “Heroes” Who Betrayed the Church by Zhang Chunhua
  • Russia: Two Evangelical Pastors Prosecuted, Falsely Accused of Raising Money for the Ukrainian Army by Massimo Introvigne
  • Filipino Catholic Priest Arrested for Slandering Unrecognized Marian Apparitions by Massimo Introvigne
  • Pakistan, Young Christian Sentenced to Death for Blasphemy by Massimo Introvigne

CHINA PERSECUTION MAP -SEARCH NEWS BY REGION

clickable geographical map of china, with regions

Footer

EDITORIAL BOARD

Editor-in-Chief

MASSIMO INTROVIGNE

Director-in-Charge

MARCO RESPINTI

ADDRESS

CESNUR

Via Confienza 19,

10121 Turin, Italy,

Phone: 39-011-541950

E-MAIL

We welcome submission of unpublished contributions, news, and photographs. Each submission implies the authorization for us to edit and publish texts and photographs. We reserve the right to decide which submissions are suitable for publication. Please, write to INFO@BITTERWINTER.ORG Thank you.

Newsletter

LINKS

orlir-logo hrwf-logo cesnur-logo

Copyright © 2023 · Bitter Winter · PRIVACY POLICY· COOKIE POLICY