The Chinese government on Wednesday urged gaming firms including Tencent and NetEase to enforce the new rules for the segment. In fact, the companies were obliged to monitor how much time underage users spend in online games and to limit it to three hours a week, as required by the new law.
Companies were warned that those who “insufficiently” adhere to the new rules would face severe punishment. The authorities also suggested that gaming companies focus on spurring innovation instead of fighting each other inappropriately (what exactly is meant by these words is not clear). The Chinese Communist Party Advertising Department, the National Press and Publications Administration, the Central Cyberspace Commission Office and the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism are participating in the unfolding campaign to tighten rules on the gaming market.
But it wasn’t just the gaming industry that was under attack. On Wednesday, China’s Ministry of Transport said it would step up its crackdown on violations of the law in passenger transportation services and tackle online platforms that still use inappropriate vehicles and drivers. As a reminder, in July, Chinese regulators launched an investigation into Didi Global, a taxi aggregator, car sharing and ride sharing company.
And as part of the purge of the digital media sphere, China’s Cyberspace Administration has closed and blocked 1,793 so-called self-media accounts on online platforms since August 27 as part of an investigation into the illegal disclosure of financial information and criticism of financial markets.
The term self-media is mainly used to describe independent accounts that create original content but are not officially registered with the authorities. Among the blocked accounts, three have more than a million subscribers. The agency added that more than 47,000 pieces of “malicious information” were removed.
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