China’s internet regulator said on Saturday it would take “disciplinary and punitive measures” against popular apps Weibo and Kuaishou for highlighting celebrity news and “undesirable” content, extending a crackdown on social media platforms.
The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said the measures would include “summonses for interviews, injunctions to correct breaches within a specified period, warnings and strict sanctions against those responsible”.
It gave no further details about punishments.
The announcement followed similar action taken by the CAC last week against the Instagram-like Xiaohongshu, known as Rednote in English.
Chinese authorities require social media platforms to use moderation, with content strictly controlled to avoid anything deemed to be too subversive, vulgar, pornographic or generally harmful.
The CAC criticised Weibo and Kuaishou for “failing to fulfil their primary responsibility” in separate but almost identical statements on Saturday.
It singled out rankings for the most popular searches on the two apps and “particularly content that over-hypes the activities of celebrities, as well as trivial posts”.
The CAC accused Weibo of “damaging the online ecosystem” and Kuaishou of contributing to the excessive spread of celebrity content deemed “frivolous”.
There was no immediate comment from either platform.
The Weibo microblogging platform allows users to post text and photos, with content generally focused on current events.
The company said in March that it had 591 million active users monthly.
The TikTok-like short video app Kuaishou said at the start of this year it had more than 730 million monthly active users.
