The Chinese government has issued a notice banning celebrities from extravagant pleasure, show off wealth and worship on social media.
According to Business Insider, this is coming on the heels of the Chinese Communist Party’s crackdown on the country’s growing entertainment industry as officials push back against celebrity scandals and online fan groups it says cause social disorder.
The notice was issued by “The Cyberspace Affairs Office of the Party Committees of all provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government, and the Cyberspace Affairs Office of the Party Committee of Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps,” the regulatory body in charge of internet activities in the country.
The notice established a negative list that Chinese celebrities should not flout:
Entertainment celebrities’ online information must not contain content expressly prohibited by laws and administrative regulations, and must not promote bad values such as traffic supremacy, deformed aesthetics, extravagant pleasure, show off wealth and worship, etc. Unauthorized exposure, buying and selling of celebrity identity information, home address, travel information and other personal privacy, do not publish in batches of celebrity artists and their works, conduct malicious marketing or scrutiny, do not publish false or false information about celebrities, misinterpretation and slander , Spreading rumors and smearing, must not create momentum for the comeback of illegal and unethical celebrity artists, and must not provoke fan groups to verbally verbally or attack each other, or stimulate fan groups to engage in supportive behaviors such as excessive consumption, illegal fund-raising, and irrational investment.
Cyberspace Administration of China
The regulatory body specified that “the release and dissemination of entertainment stars online information must comply with laws and regulations, follow public order and good customs, adhere to correct public opinion orientation and value orientation, promote socialist core values, and maintain a healthy style and taste.”
The regulatory body enjoined website platforms to a monitoring and disposal mechanism to enforce this new order. They are to “establish a monitoring mechanism for online information and public opinion of entertainment stars, and promptly discover and handle hot public opinion signs such as emotional disputes of exposed stars, suspected illegal and criminal acts of exposed stars, and group conflicts involving fans, and report to the competent authority. Involve clues to issues such as cyber violence, quarreling and provoking troubles, and report to the public security department in time.”
The website platforms are also to strengthen the guidance of public opinion thus:
“In response to the hot online public opinion of entertainment stars, the website platform must review the identity of the relevant account subject, and clearly mark the account subject’s true identity if it cannot be verified. At the same time, according to the nature of public opinion events, the celebrities are urged to speak through their official accounts to guide fans to look at it rationally and prevent the continuous fermentation of public opinion. All localities should attach great importance to strengthening the online information standardization of entertainment stars, formulate detailed implementation plans in conjunction with the rectification of the “fan circle” chaos, and guide and urge the local website platforms to implement various measures in order to achieve practical results.”
Recently China has been out to stamp out “Western” influence and all forms of capitalism in the country through any internet related activities. This has caused companies like Fortnite, Yahoo, LinkedIn to shut down recently. Cryptocurrency activities were recently declared illegal citing concerns around national security and “safety of people’s assets.”
“Western” oriented apps such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube are blocked in China and users have to rely on domestic sites subject to censorship, such as Weibo, Renren, and Youku.