China has reportedly started throwing wealthy influencers off of social media for flaunting their rich lifestyle. Since April, the Chinese government has been cracking down in order to prevent what could be seen as the promotion of materialism.
According to a report from Business Insider, China's internet regulation body, the Cyberspace Administration of China, started a campaign in April to stop influencers on social media from "deliberately showcasing a lavish lifestyle built on wealth," as stated in the Financial Times.
Wang Hongquanxing, who has been dubbed the Chinese "Kim Kardashian" and has 4.3 million followers on the China version of TikTok, Douyin, sparked the initiative to go after influencers flaunting a wealthy lifestyle. Other influencers who have been caught in the crackdown include "Sister Abalone" as well as "Mr Bo," who gave tours of her luxury home and posted about luxury goods, respectively. They have had their accounts restricted on the platform.
Platforms such as Weibo, Douyin, and Xiaohongshu in the country all took steps to curb the influence they had on social media on May 15. Weibo's code of conduct added measures to bar the promotion of luxury homes, goods and services. Showing off large sums of cash is also not allowed and other posts about wealth cannot be made to "attract traffic and hype. " China took a similar step in 2021 in order to stop influencers from posting "unethical" content on social media platforms.
China's Cyberspace Administration announced during the 2021 crackdown that celebrities could not "show off wealth" or other "extravagant pleasures" on their user profiles. The country has also started censoring what it claims to be misinformation on the internet.
In one instance, influencer "Thurman Maoyibei" was censored after posting a story that claimed that there was a boy that lost his homework books in China. She then posted a video saying that she got two Chinese homework books that belonged to a Chinese student and said that she would return the books to him. At the time the China's Ministry of Public Security claimed it was a "typical example" of the Chinese government fighting misinformation.
