Top internet watchdog urges online platforms to curb illegal activities

The top internet watchdog said on Friday that it has urged operators of 10 popular online platforms to perform their duty of managing self-media on their platforms to better fighting illegal activities such as spreading rumors or pornographic content.

The Cyberspace Administration of China summoned managers of 10 platforms, including Baidu, Tencent and Toutiao, on Wednesday and asked them to review contents on their own sites and eliminate those involving pornography, illegal advertisements or rumors.

Operators were urged to shoulder more social responsibilities in managing the self-media accounts, referring to subscription-based accounts that are popular on social media platforms, and improve their content management systems.

On Monday, the administration launched a campaign against the chaos of self-media accounts, and held a talk with Tencent's WeChat and Sina Weibo, two of the country's most popular social media platforms.

Given that some self-media account owners escape supervision by moving accounts to other platforms or operating with new names, the administration spoke with more platforms on Wednesday and required all the operators to join the campaign.

"Platform operators shoulder unshrinkable responsibility for the self-media chaos," the administration said in a release on Friday. "The platforms are service providers for self-media operation, so they should also be the order defender of the media industry."

Platforms must fulfill their obligations, operate according to law, and not relax their management and let self-media grow wildly without regulation, it said.

The administration will further supervise such platforms and punish those that fail to perform their duties to ensure a healthy development of the industry.

More than 9,800 self-media accounts had been punished since Oct 20, Xinhua News Agency reported on Wednesday. The violations mainly included defaming heroes, tarnishing the nation's image, spreading rumors or blackmailing companies with media exposure.