Sina Corp news and blog apps suspended for violating China internet laws
Sina Corp, the Chinese internet giant behind microblogging site Weibo, has suspended its news and blog apps after violating China’s internet regulations.
The Chinese government continues to clamp down on internet violations
China’s internet authority, Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission said the company was not doing enough to moderate unsuitable content and had spread untrue and vulgar information and was a “bad influence” on public opinion.
Sina has reportedly voluntarily suspended its Sina Blog platform and app as well as the Sina News app for one month to rectify the problems.
Sina’s Weibo platform, which is one of the biggest social media platforms in China, is not affected by the suspensions.
It is the latest move by the Chinese government to crack down on unsuitable internet content, including pornography, gambling, fake news and political dissent. China’s internet regulators have shut down thousands of apps and social media accounts, and placed pressure on companies to moderate and censor content that appears on their platforms.
Last year the internet authority investigated Tencent, Baidu and Sina Weibo for sharing user-generated content laden with “violence, porn, rumours”. It also has previously shut down Weibo and other live-streaming sites for violations.
The government also continues to clamp down on the use of Virtual Private Network’s (VPN) which mask IP addresses and enable users to navigate China’s Great Firewall to access blocked content and websites. Last month the government banned VPNs from buying banner ads in China. It has also previously forced Apple to remove VPN apps for the Chinese App Store.