Weibo moves to battle fake interactions as government scrutiny persists

Chinese microblogging service Weibo aims to discourage fake comments and reposts on its platform by limiting its count of the total number of interactions such as shares to 1 million.

The platform will show a maximum figure of “1 million+” when reposts and comments exceed that amount, the company wrote in a report. The social media platform said the effort aims to “build a virtuous ecosystem for content and connections,” and applies to all accounts except those owned by government bodies and media outlets. The system will come online at the end of January.

The move takes aim at the country’s “water army,” shuijun in Chinese, referring to paid posters who flood social media platforms with reposts, biased comments, rumors, and gossip. It also targets click farms, which feature thousands of smartphones that inflate interaction metrics.

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