New rule reigns supreme in China’s booming desktop publishing space – Heaven32

Despite China’s history of tight media control, an industry of uninstitutionalized individual publishers has managed to thrive on social media platforms such as Tencent’s WeChat and ByteDance’s Toutiao. These desktop editors are called “We Media” in the Chinese Internet lexicon, denoting the independent power of citizen journalists and content creators.

Meanwhile, self-publishers have always had to be cautious in what they publish or risk being attacked by censors who deem them illegal or inappropriate.

The topics they cover are endless, from fashion and food to politics and current affairs. WeChat, a major destination for desktop publishers, hinted last July that there were 20 million “public accounts.”

, platforms for people to deliver content and, in the case of businesses, to reach customers. In 2020, 360 billion users read articles posted on WeChat public accounts, WeChat founder Allen Zhang recently revealed.

Sina Weibo, China’s response to Twitter, has long attracted citizen journalists. At the start of COVID-19, millions of Chinese users rushed to Weibo looking for data from accounts like that of Fang Fang, an author who recounted what she witnessed in Wuhan.

Today, a further shift in Chinese internet regulation is poised to further restrict tens of millions of Chinese desktop publishers.

Public accounts that “provide online news services to the public must obtain the Internet Information Permit and other relevant media accreditation,” according to a new regulation (Translation Here) released on January 22 by the Chinese Cyberspace Administration , the country’s Internet watchdog.

In the following days, WeChat, Baidu, Sohu and other online news services began to notify publishers of the new rule. “If your account does not have the proper accreditation, you are advised not to edit, report, post or comment on any information on politics, economy, military, foreign affairs or other relevant events. ‘important news’, according to the achievement

sent by WeChat.

“WeChat’s public accounts platform has always been committed to providing a green and healthy online environment for users,” the post added.

The news accreditation requirement is likely to be a death sentence for independent social media editors who have taken on journalistic roles, especially those who cover politics. “It’s not something you can easily get unless you’re an official media outlet or an organization with unmatched resources and experience,” a WeChat account editor told Heaven32.

China’s control over news reaches every corner of the internet, and regulations are always in step with the pace at which new media, such as microblogging and live broadcasting, are developing.

From 2017 to 2018, the cyberspace authority granted news permissions to a total of 761 “Internet information services”, which together operated 743 websites, 563 applications, 119 forums, 23 blogs, 3 microblogs, 2 285 public accounts, instant messaging and 13 live. streaming services. In other words, hard news is prohibited for Internet services of these categories which operate without a news license. It remains to be seen how operators of platforms like WeChat and Sina Weibo work to enforce the rules.

Better monitoring of online information could be of interest in the fight against disinformation. The new regulation also calls on operators to put in place mechanisms such as a blacklist of creators to eliminate false information. But regulations in general could have a negative impact on freedom of expression in China, the International Federation of Journalists has warned.

“The loosely defined new rule comes at a time when ‘proprietary media’ have grown in popularity in China and journalists have started using these platforms to publish work that has been deleted by their organizations,” said IFJ. he said in a statement released Jan. 28.