To the Cyberspace Administration committees of the Party committees of all provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government, and the Cyberspace Administration committee of the Party committee of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps:

In accordance with the 2024 "Qinglang" series of special action plans, the Office of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission hereby launches, effective today, a two-month nationwide special action on "Qinglang: Cracking Down on 'Self-Media' Seeking Traffic Without Bottom Line."

　　I. Work Objectives

Implement the important thought of General Secretary Xi Jinping on building a strong cyber nation, thoroughly implement the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Party, and through this special action, curb the trend of staged and fabricated content by "self-media," compress the space for bottom-line-less traffic-seeking behavior, and enhance the credibility of information published by "self-media." Tighten and consolidate the primary responsibility of website platforms for information content management, cut off the profit chain of "toxic traffic" that attracts followers and monetizes, expand the reach of high-quality information content, and foster a clean and upright cyberspace.

　　II. Focus of Rectification

Focus on prominent problems such as "self-media" creating and hijacking hot topics without bottom line, and manufacturing "information traps" that pass falsehood off as truth and mix the virtual with the real; strictly rectify "self-media" that disregard public interests, violate public order and good morals, disrupt public order, and stop at nothing and lose all bottom line for the sake of traffic. The key problems to be rectified are as follows:

1. Self-directed and self-performed fabrication. Staging and publishing false event information concerning domestic and international current affairs, social livelihood, and other fields, resorting to deception to fool the public and disrupt public order. Piecing together and editing online videos and images, tampering with elements such as the time, place, and persons involved in an event, passing falsehood off as truth to deceive the public, and infringing upon the lawful rights and interests of others. Citing old news and past events without accurately and completely explaining the full picture of the event, passing off the old as the new to deceive the public, and damaging the online ecosystem.

2. Hijacking and hyping social hot topics by any means. Impersonating parties involved in hot events, their relatives, or related persons to publish information and garner netizen attention. Fabricating, distorting, and other means to concoct the causes, details, and developments of hot events, and publishing sensational information such as conspiracy theories. Manipulating matrix accounts to spread illegal and harmful information, manufacturing fake hot topics, and wasting public resources.

3. Setting topics in an overgeneralized manner. One-sidedly selecting controversial or negative terms, concocting clickbait and shock-style topics to lure the public into clicking and browsing. Summarizing extreme individual cases as group phenomena, and using exaggerated negative narratives to stir up negative emotions. Presetting narrow positions in topic setting, spreading extreme remarks, inciting group antagonism, and undermining social consensus.

4. Violating public order and good morals to manufacture personas. Fabricating sob stories to create pity-seeking personas, and under the banner of assisting farmers, charity, and the like, exploiting public sympathy to swindle attention and seek profits. Catering to vulgar demand to create wealth-flaunting personas, deliberately displaying luxurious lives piled up with money to attract followers and divert traffic. Challenging the bottom line of public cognition to create ugliness-appreciating personas, and self-degrading through playing the fool, vulgar behavior, and the like to garner attention.

5. Abusively publishing "new yellow journalism." Using sensationalized expressions, paired with eye-catching headlines and covers, to produce and publish information content with incomplete elements, hard-to-distinguish truth from falsehood, low quality, and lacking public value.

　　III. Main Tasks

1. Strengthen management of key platforms and key links. Short video and livestreaming platforms shall focus on intensifying the identification and cleanup of false staged information, and strictly handle "self-media" accounts that violate public order and good morals to manufacture personas. Platforms providing hot search list information services shall focus on strengthening the review of information proposed for listing, and promptly handle overgeneralized topics. News and information platforms shall focus on cleaning up clickbait, element-deficient, and public-value-lacking "new yellow journalism." Search engine platforms must not present, on search results pages, search suggestion terms, and the like, information from "self-media" seeking traffic without bottom line.

2. Strengthen full-process management of "self-media" accounts. For accounts granted profit-making permissions, platforms shall conduct real identity information authentication using ID card numbers and the like. Strengthen dynamic verification of account information such as account names, strictly review accounts newly registered and accounts with changed names after hot events occur, and shut down all those found to be impersonating. Strictly implement the account registration quantity rules of "one person, one account; one enterprise, two accounts," and promptly handle cases where it is clearly stated to be a secondary account, the actual person appearing on camera is the same person, and the like.

3. Strengthen labeling and display of information sources. Platforms shall require "self-media" to accurately label the information source when publishing information concerning domestic and international current affairs, public policies, social events, and the like. Information generated using technologies such as AI must be clearly labeled as technically generated. Content containing fictional, dramatized, and other such elements must be clearly marked with a fiction label. Platforms need to display in prominent positions the information sources or labels marked by "self-media."

4. Improve traffic management measures. Improve traffic management rules; information from "self-media" that should be labeled but is not shall not be presented in key links. Information maliciously labeled shall be handled as false information. For information suspected of seeking traffic without bottom line, traffic restriction measures shall be taken in advance, and interaction data growth such as comments and likes shall be suspended as appropriate.

　　IV. Work Requirements

1. Strengthen organizational leadership. Cyberspace administration departments in all localities shall treat the rectification of "self-media" seeking traffic without bottom line as a long-term work task, and in light of local realities, guide platforms to strengthen prediction, early warning, and prevention of bottom-line-less traffic-seeking behavior, continuously improve long-term governance measures, strengthen education and guidance for "self-media," and reinforce constraints and norms.

2. Improve the mechanism for discovering, handling, and exposing violating "self-media." Urge platforms to clarify handling rules for bottom-line-less traffic-seeking behavior, improve the integrated punishment mechanism for traffic, profit-making permissions, and follower counts, make full use of warning and education columns, and for "self-media" that care only about traffic and disregard online order, discover them at the first opportunity, handle them strictly and severely, and promptly publish the handling results.

3. Improve the traffic allocation mechanism. Urge platforms to take account evaluation as an important indicator for traffic allocation, innovate work measures, and actively support "self-media" with correct orientation and high-quality content. Optimize algorithm models and recommendation mechanisms, effectively expand the reach of high-quality content, raise the review standards for high-heat information, and block the spread of bottom-line-less traffic-seeking information.

Secretariat of the Office of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission

April 21, 2024