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New regulations target scandal-ridden Chinese celebs

Beijing

Beijing issued new regulations.

Photo: Zhang Kaiyv/Unsplash

The latest five-year blueprint by China's National Radio and Television Administration, released last Friday, specifies new rules designed to regulate content that appears in livestreaming ecommerce, online variety shows and short video platforms.

The NRTA is a central regulator that drafts policies for the television and radio industry. This blueprint expands its regulatory scope to online visual and audio content.

In line with recent policies and rules issued by other regulators like the Cyberspace Administration of China, the NRTA's five-year plan stresses the importance of eradicating online content that's deemed to have strayed from Chinese Communist Party ideology. Specifically, the plan calls for "strengthening the management of new industries such as online variety shows, live streaming shows, live streaming ecommerce [and] short videos." The plan also requires the establishment of a mechanism that will punish producers of what the Party considers toxic show business culture and will ban scandal-ridden celebrities from making public appearances.

As for celebrities who are "patriotic and love Hong Kong," they will get all the support they need from authorities.

Shen Lu

Shen Lu is a former Protocol reporter, covering China's tech industry.

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