In the face of the spread of misinformation and the difficulty of confronting it on social media platforms, China decided to tighten laws and rules that prevent content makers on social media from publishing content in the financial, medical, legal, and educational fields unless they have professional qualifications to support their content.
According to the new rules announced by the Cybersecurity Administration concerned with regulating the Internet sector in China, Chinese social media platforms, such as Bilibili, Douyin (Chinese TikTok) and Weibo, will have to adhere to the new regulations, which obligate content makers to share studies that support their content and disclose whether they have used artificial intelligence to produce any of their content.
The Cybersecurity Administration also prohibits advertising for nutritional supplements, medical services, and similar posts that pretend to be educational content to sell a product.
China had earlier announced a two-month campaign to eliminate pessimistic, offensive or violent content.
This comes while a study conducted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) found that only 36.9% of influencers verify the authenticity of the content they share before publishing it, which is a major concern, especially after a report issued by the American Pew Research Center earlier this year showed that one in five young Americans receive their news via TikTok.