A concept photo of Sina Weibo Photo: VCG

Multiple Chinese social media platforms including Sina Weibo, WeChat, Douyin, Kuaishou, Bilibili, Xiaohongshu and Baidu released notices on Tuesday saying that they will start to invite certain self-media accounts on their platforms to display their real names, as a way to further regulate the industry and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of users.

A few platforms such as WeChat and Sina Weibo said that they will first invite self-media accounts with more than 1 million followers to make their real-name information public.

Sina Weibo will soon invite self-media accounts with over 1 million followers in fields such as social issues, the military, finance, law, and healthcare to publish real-name information. This will gradually expand to those with over 500,000 followers in related fields, and the real names will be displayed with the users' consent, Sina Weibo said in its notice.

Ordinary users and those accounts based on personal daily life-sharing will not be impacted, said Sina Weibo.

The implementation of real-name registration for certain online influencers aims to push influential self-media accounts to take on corresponding responsibility when discussing social hot topics. These online influencers have a much greater influence on public opinion guidance than ordinary users. The moves aim to further promote a healthy online ecosystem, according to Weibo.

Self-media accounts with more than 500,000 followers, and those related to sectors such as politics, social issues, finance, education and health need to authorize the platform to display the authenticated real-name information on the account homepage, Chinese online video-sharing platform Douyin said in its notice.

Popular video sharing platform Bilibili also released a similar notice on Tuesday. After the user agrees to provide real name information, the relevant information can be viewed on the account profile page. If the user doesn't agree to provide real name information, the account traffic and earnings will be restricted, according to Bilibili.

The country has been making efforts to build a healthy and clean cyberspace environment during recent years. Experts said that the latest move is aimed to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of users.

The Office of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission issued a circular on strengthening self-media management in July, stressing websites and online platforms' responsibility for supervision. Social media websites and platforms should identify and strictly punish self-media accounts engaged in illegal behavior, including spreading rumors, hyping social hotspot issues, and disseminating illegal and harmful information, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Global Times