China has added yet another regulation to its massive list of restrictions of what its citizens can read and talk about online. Effective immediately, according to Reuters, at least two government auditors will review “all audiovisual content posted online.” This new regulation extends to documentaries and even sports content.
The auditors will work to determine if the audiovisual content posted online “adheres to core socialist values,” according to the Reuters report. As part of the new rule, content that involves homosexuality or drug addiction is now deemed inappropriate.
China already has some of the most restrictive internet policies. When Chinese Wikipedia switched to HTTPS in 2015, which made it impossible for the Chinese government to selectively block pages, the entire website was blocked. GreatFire.org analyzes internet censorship in China and has found over 24,000 blocked Google searches, including one for “Tankman,” the man who stood in front of Chinese government tanks in Tiananmen Square in 1989. Of the top 1,000 most popular websites as ranked by Alexa, 174 are censored in China.
According to Reuters, the Chinese government’s goal in imposing these new regulations is to “create a healthy and uplifting mainstream media environment, and actively spread socialist core values.”
