Sina's Twitter-like microblog service Weibo has released new guidelines to restrict users who share banned content, according to international news reports.
(CPJ/IFEX) – 29 May 2012 – The following is a CPJ Blog post:
By Madeline Earp/CPJ Senior Asia Research Associate
Sina’s Twitter-like microblog service Weibo has released new guidelines to restrict users who share banned content, according to international news reports. It’s the first time such guidelines target users who adopt puns, homonyms, and other veiled references to discuss censored news stories without using keywords on the propaganda department’s blacklist, the reports said.
Weibo’s operator is getting squeezed. With government censorship restrictions on one side and a select group of users determined to flout them on the other, it has struggled to regulate content with a series of measures, from real-name registration to cancelling user accounts. These measures were patchily enforced and arguably failed, as Weibo users still use their accounts to break news and discuss banned content.