Recently, under the tightening supervision by the Chinese Communist authorities, online cloud storage platforms represented by Quark Cloud have intensified their efforts to clean up overseas film and television resources. Many links to overseas film and television resources are no longer available for sharing or have become invalid. This has sparked widespread attention and criticism from netizens, questioning if the crime of “listening to enemy radio stations” will be brought up again in the future.
According to a report by Sina TV on April 16th, starting from April 10th, the online cloud storage industry has faced the most rigorous investigation and cleanup of overseas film and television resources. Some platforms have begun comprehensive checks on users’ stored overseas film and television content, including American dramas, Korean dramas, Thai dramas, and others, resulting in a large number of publicly shared links becoming inactive overnight.
A screenshot of a notice titled “Notice Prohibiting the Transmission of Overseas Film and Television Resources Violating Laws and Regulations through Cloud Storage” revealed that as of that day, users were required to self-audit and thoroughly delete any infringing overseas film and television files and sharing links, with the notice dated April 10th.
On April 10th, screenshots circulated online showing that Weibo TV team member “Tianfu Thai Drama,” Weibo video translation blogger “Meng Zhu Tui Ju” (Cute Master Recommends Dramas), and “Tongying Three Thousand” along with several certified big V bloggers posted reminders urging netizens to immediately deal with any related files stored in Quark Cloud, or risk them being deleted. However, these related posts are currently inaccessible.
On April 16th, the topic labeled “Prohibiting the Transmission of Overseas Film and Television Resources through Cloud Storage” trended on Weibo.
Esports blogger and Weibo influencer “Wang Weichen” uploaded related screenshots and stated, “Recently, Quark Cloud has launched a large-scale resource cleanup operation. It includes but is not limited to overseas resources such as American dramas, Korean dramas, Japanese dramas, Thai dramas, foreign films, etc. Not only is sharing being requested to stop, but also the deletion of previously shared content. Several production and subtitling team accounts have already been banned.”
Netizens criticized, “They have recently cracked down on overseas film and television content in online cloud storage, citing ‘strict compliance with the Copyright Law and Regulations on the Protection of the Right to Information Network Dissemination.’ It seems to be for copyright protection, but I always feel it’s not that simple. Many contents on major video platforms have been heavily edited, and some dramas are not allowed to be aired at all… Will they bring up the crime of ‘listening to enemy radio stations’ again in the future?”
“Officially licensed content fails to keep up with audience demand. Whether it’s popular new dramas, niche gems, or classic old series, official platforms either lag in introducing them, don’t have a complete library, restrict viewing by region, or heavily edit the content. Online cloud storage has become a ‘refuge’ for overseas dramas because it fills a huge gap between official supply and public demand.”
“Before cracking down on pirated content, can we ensure that legitimate content is readily available? It’s a bit laughable.” “I actually want to watch legitimate content, but are you introducing it? Don’t edit it, simply don’t introduce it; just be honest about not wanting the audience to watch!” “Fighting piracy is fine, the problem lies in the lack of introduction of legitimate content, or introducing with many restrictions. How many of these American, Korean, and Thai dramas that are being targeted can be watched through official platforms domestically? None of them.”
“If there are legal ways to watch, who would bother shifting around in online cloud storage? Does this mean we will only watch domestically produced films and dramas in the future?” “Go ahead, ban it. Even if you ban it, no one will watch your poor-quality dramas.” “Can you see the quality of domestic dramas in China right now?”
For a long time, the online cloud storage industry has been regarded by Chinese netizens as a “safety net” for overseas film and television resources, where some users watch and share sensitive overseas content.
In response to this, Professor Lin Dawei from Japan’s Chuko University analyzed to the Lianhe Zaobao that this recent action may be driven by both ideological and legal regulation factors. Chinese communication scholar Wei Wuhui said that apart from ideology, there are also issues related to combating piracy and regulating copyright.
In May last year, the Chinese government officially launched the so-called “Clean Net 2025” special operation, explicitly listing “copyright in the field of online storage + dissemination” as a key area to be addressed, requiring enhanced supervision of the copyright in the commercial models of “browsers + search engines + online cloud storage.”
In February this year, the Institute of Law at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences released a report stating that thousands of overseas film and television dramas containing restricted content such as violence and terrorism, as well as pirated film and television resources, are being disseminated in an organized and large-scale manner through platforms like online cloud storage and browsers, impacting mainstream values and threatening national cultural and ideological security, and thus calling for stringent implementation of the main responsibilities of online cloud storage, browsers, and other platforms.