China’s cyber watchdog cracks down on local browsers, targeting self-media accounts that spread rumours and information ‘chaos’

China’s internet watchdog has launched a crackdown on popular local mobile browsers, in an attempt to better control what it describes as information “chaos”, which has raised “strong concerns” among the country’s netizens.

The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said in a statement late on Monday that eight “influential” local mobile browsers, including Tencent-owned QQ browser, Alibaba’s UC browser, and Huawei’s browser will be subject to a “rectification campaign”. They have been given two weeks to review their own operations and fix bad practices.

The Chinese authorities have launched a series of crackdowns on online businesses over the past few years, targeting illegal activity such as theft and scams, content that the government deems socially harmful such as gambling and pornography, and politically-sensitive content. This time the CAC has zeroed in on “we-media” accounts, which are online news sources operated by individuals or groups, who are usually amateurs.

Specifically, the CAC wants to stop the spread of rumours and gossip and the use of clickbait headlines and vulgar content, such as graphic videos, which “violate core socialist values”. It also wants an end to excessive use of pop-ups on unrelated topics by self-media and gimmicky articles that titillate rather than inform. The named browsers need to submit a rectification report to the cyberspace department for review by November 9.

“Mobile browsers have grown aggressively and engage in internet news information services in violation of regulations, becoming a gathering place and amplifier for dissemination of [information] chaos by self-media accounts,” said CAC in its statement. We media, or self-media accounts, are typically operated independently in China.