The dissemination of content in the medical, financial, or legal fields will be regulated by the requirement for digital creators to transmit and demonstrate their professional qualifications to the platforms and the public. This is just the latest in a series of restrictions by the Chinese government on the live streaming industry.
The government has required Chinese influencers to show their diploma or certificate at the start of content broadcasting in order to continue working in online business. Anyone who posts content on specialized topics such as law, medicine or finance online, including live streaming, will have to present a degree or qualification that must be pre-verified by the platform.
The move is part of a broader effort by local authorities to more closely monitor live streaming and e-commerce businesses , which have exploded in popularity in recent years.
In fact, as of December 2021, live content users amount to over seven hundred million across the country, or almost 70% of the active Internet population. Communication on social networks through posts, videos, stories or reels is not limited to the intervention of celebrities, brands or influencers alone, but also extends to medical or legal professionals present on the platforms for the purpose of dissemination.
The most popular platforms in China are Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, owned by ByteDance, and Kuaishou.
This decision adds to a series of restrictions already applied in the country.
For example, in the summer of 2021, the government banned chinese overseas africa database children under the age of 16 from playing video games for more than three hours a week. Later, in May, the regulation was expanded to prohibit the same age group from watching live content after 10 p.m. and from purchasing from influencers.
Or again, platforms have been banned from hosting content that is not in line with the country's socialist values.
A new code of conduct for online influencers has been issued and published by the National Radio and Television Administration, the agency responsible for distributing licensed content, and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
The new decision could be a step forward in the fight against misinformation , especially on sensitive issues such as health or financial choices.
At the same time, the question remains whether such regulations, in the context of China's notoriously severe state censorship of the Internet, will result in the exclusion of various content creators, particularly in the category of independents, and in the limitation of freedom of expression and plurality of ideas.