Grok insight – Running Chinese social media accounts? You need to know about these new regulations.
Recently the Chinese government made changes to the way China’s internet is governed. The regulations add new elements of risk and responsibility for any foreign institution maintaining Chinese social media accounts.
The biggest change is that anybody who administers an online forum in China is now effectively responsible for the discussion and content within it. This change appears to be aimed at private chat groups in messaging services like WeChat, making the administrator of a chat group responsible for deleting or reporting inappropriate conversations. However, the regulation is broad enough that it could include any social media account where comments can be posted, including, for example, the comments below an online video.
So if you’re considering setting up an account, also consider your institution is responsible for the comments of your followers. If it attracted a lot of comments that the authorities considered inappropriate and those comments weren’t deleted, the account may be closed. If it is owned by an individual, that person may be banned from using the application. In extreme cases that person could be contacted by the law authorities.
These regulations shouldn’t dissuade institutions from engaging in China’s digital space. The risk of an education institution falling foul of Chinese regulations is still very low. In fact, it’s probably lower because, in another change, it is now much harder to use the internet anonymous, so people will be less likely to post inappropriate comments. But we hope institutions are aware of what they are signing up for when entering China’s digital space and that it is very different to what happens at home.
If comments that required moderating or reporting were posted on your account, would you know? Who would delete them? If they were particularly bad, would you know how to report them? Do you know what sort of comments may be considered inappropriate by Chinese authorities?
For these reasons, social media should be run carefully with consideration, planning and long-term thinking, with staff dedicated to monitoring and maintaining the accounts. A social media account is no longer something that can be created and then forgotten about, or looked at periodically.
If there are more changes we will share them via our newsletter. In the meantime, if you’d like to know more, we’re happy to hear from you and answer your questions. Contact us anytime at info@grokglobal.com
