Zimpapers Logo

BEIJING. – China’s top internet regulator said yesterday that it will establish a negative list to prevent celebrity-related content from promoting distorted values, including abnormal aesthetics, vulgar scandals, and content that induces fans to blindly idolize celebrities or that hypes the comeback of entertainers who have illegal and unethical records.

On the same day, the China Association of Performing Arts published the ninth warning list for livestreaming performances covering 88 celebrities, including Chinese-Canadian pop idol Kris Wu Yifan who has been arrested on rape charges, actress Zheng Shuang who was fined for tax fraud, and actor Zhang Zhehan who visited Japan’s war-linked Yasukuni Shrine and went against the Chinese public’s emotions.

Since the launch of the warning list in 2018, eight lists of 358 online celebrities had been issued, and all members of the association have been told to boycott the celebrities on the list.

The notice released by the Cyberspace Administration of China yesterday listed 15 measures in four areas to manage how online information about celebrities is presented – content orientation, information presentation, account management, and the mechanism of public opinion. Observers hailed the latest notice as further drawing a clear bottom line of the rule of law covering the network communication order.

Celebrities should not induce fans to illegally fundraise or provoke confrontations among “fan cultures,” the notice said, adding that celebrities who were recently involved in unethical and illegal behaviour will be strictly prevented from reviving their careers. – Globaltimes.com