As
the starting point, the focus will be to rectify content that is
"pornographic, ugly, strange, fake, vulgar and (promotes) gambling,"
the Cyberspace Administration of China said in a statement.
Last
year, China launched "special ops" to remove more than 1 billion
online accounts and thousands of websites to create an internet that reflected
the country's socialist values.
The
two-month cleanup exercise will target multi-channel network (MCN) firms, short
videos and live-streaming tipping, while accounts that publish illegal content
will also be targeted, according to the statement.
The
addition of MCN agencies to the clean-up campaign highlights the cyberspace
authority's growing concern with the firms behind much of the viral content
seen on Chinese social media.
Such
agencies also tend to manage multiple online influencers, who have come under
scrutiny in recent months over issues such as tax evasion.
Live-streaming
and short video platforms that fail to define the source and nature of the
income of network anchors or account operators, or fail to declare their
incomes to evade taxes will be targeted in the two-month sweep, the watchdog
warned.