After Chinese regulators ordered Sina Weibo and two more media outlets to curtail their live streaming program last week, the company issued a statement promising to implement new rules and cooperate with state media to “amplify the voices of mainstream public opinion” (in Chinese).
The Twitter-like social platform has stated that they were insufficiently aware of the openness of their users and content which led to some users uploading illegal content. The company has agreed to accept government criticism, conduct rectification, and improve the management of their audio-visual program.
To address this, Weibo has come up with new regulations: Aside from media and government accounts, users who do not hold a proper license may not upload content. Users who stream movies, TV shows and similar programs need to hold a permit for public broadcast. Also, Weibo will no longer support video uploads of longer than 15 minutes, instead encouraging users to post on other platforms.
At the same time, Weibo has also announced that it will continue to strengthen cooperation with state media such as CCTV, People’s Daily, and Xinhua.
The streaming ban on Weibo, news website iFeng and video-sharing and game streaming platform ACFUN was issued on the 22nd of June by the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film, and Television of the People’s Republic of China (SAPPRFT). The reason behind the ban was being out of line with national audiovisual regulations and “promoting negative comments” (in Chinese).