China Extends Social Media Sanctions To Include Weibo, Kuaishou

China's internet watchdog announced on Saturday it will impose "disciplinary and punitive measures" against popular social media platforms Weibo and Kuaishou for promoting celebrity news and "undesirable" content, expanding its ongoing crackdown on social media applications.

The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) stated these measures would include "summonses for interviews, injunctions to correct breaches within a specified period, warnings and strict sanctions against those responsible," though specific punishments were not elaborated upon.

This action follows similar regulatory steps taken by the CAC last week against Xiaohongshu (known as Rednote internationally), which resembles Instagram.

In China, social media platforms must implement strict content moderation policies, as authorities mandate tight control to prevent material deemed subversive, vulgar, pornographic, or generally harmful.

The CAC criticized both Weibo and Kuaishou in nearly identical statements on Saturday for "failing to fulfil their primary responsibility" as content platforms. The regulator specifically highlighted issues with trending search rankings on both applications, "particularly content that over-hypes the activities of celebrities, as well as trivial posts."

According to the CAC, Weibo was accused of "damaging the online ecosystem" while Kuaishou was criticized for contributing to the excessive spread of "frivolous" celebrity content.

Neither platform has issued an immediate response to these allegations.

Weibo, a microblogging service allowing users to share text and photos primarily focused on current events, reported having 591 million monthly active users as of March.

Meanwhile, Kuaishou, a short-video application similar to TikTok, claimed over 730 million monthly active users at the beginning of this year.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)