Recently, there has been a wave of shutdowns of government new media by the Chinese Communist Party. In many regions, a large number of government new media accounts have been canceled, with some publishing channels shifting to government websites or merging with other accounts. These accounts, which were required by officials to play a role in “guiding public opinion,” have been significantly cleared out, sparking public attention, possibly due to the tight financial situation of the CCP.
In a recent announcement on the Jilin Provincial Government website, the inspection results of the first quarter of 2024 for government websites and government new media across the province were released. Compared to previous reports, the Jilin Provincial Bureau of Government Affairs and Digital Construction clearly outlined the need to increase efforts in cleaning up new media.
According to the announcement, regions and departments are required to strictly manage the opening, modification, and cancellation of government new media throughout their lifecycle. It is emphasized to strictly control the opening of government new media accounts, with the principle that each unit should only open one government new media account on the same platform. A number of similar-function, low user engagement, and low utilization accounts are to be cleared out.
The announcement from the Zhongshan City Government Office in Guangdong Province regarding the inspection of government websites and government new media for the first quarter of 2024 also mentioned the need for strict implementation of the requirement that “each unit should only open one government new media account on the same platform.” They are optimizing and integrating government new media accounts with similar functions and low user engagement and utilization.
Recently, news of government new media accounts being shut down and canceled has emerged in various regions.
According to Southern Metropolis Daily, the recently suspended and canceled new media accounts mostly come from regions/counties, streets/towns such as Jiangsu, Yunnan, Sichuan, and Shaanxi.
On April 30, the Natural Resources Bureau of Fuping County in Shaanxi announced that, in accordance with the requirements of the State Council Office and the Shaanxi Provincial Government, a thorough rectification of all internal government new media within the system was carried out. The “Fuping County Real Estate Registration Bureau Website” was canceled; the WeChat public accounts of “Fuping County Forestry Pest Control and Quarantine Center,” “Fuping County Comprehensive Law Enforcement Team for Natural Resources,” and “Fuping County Land and Resources Bureau Workers’ Union” were canceled; and the Toutiao account “Fuping Forestry” was canceled.
The Continuing Education College of Zhengzhou University and the Cadre Training Center announced on April 26 that they would integrate three WeChat public accounts, “Zhengda Training,” “Zhengda Self-study Office,” and “Zhengda Distance Education.”
Recently, Zhangjiagang City in Jiangsu Province has centralized the shutdown of a batch of government new media accounts. Several government agencies and institutions, including the Zhangjiagang Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau, Zhangjiagang Water Bureau, Zhangjiagang Agriculture and Rural Bureau, and Zhangjiagang Court, issued announcements declaring the suspension of their WeChat official accounts and WeChat video accounts, stating that they would no longer be updated.
Southern Metropolis Daily reported that on April 30, staff from the Zhangjiagang Education Bureau mentioned that the shutdown of local school new media accounts was “according to the requirements of higher authorities.” Staff members from two other government units that shut down new media accounts revealed that this was a unified requirement at the city level.
The State Cyberspace Administration of China issued the opinion “On Preventing and Combating ‘Formalism on Fingertips'” in December last year, emphasizing strict control over the registration and operation of government public accounts, enhancing information updates, and integrating and migrating similar and redundant government apps.
Government new media accounts have been successively shut down in various regions over the past month. On the WeChat platform, accounts from Yunnan Kunming Wuhua District Retired Military Affairs Bureau, Hunan Changsha Yuhua District Market Supervision Administration, Sichuan Qingchuan Le’an Town Government, Jinan Huaiyin District Zhenxing Street Office, and Xi’an Weiyang District Culture and Tourism Sports Bureau all announced last month that account updates would be suspended. Some of them redirected the publishing channels to government websites or merged with other accounts.
On Weibo, accounts from the Judicial Bureau of Linwei District in Weinan City, Shaanxi, and the Urban Management Bureau of Jiangning District in Nanjing, Jiangsu, have also stopped service and initiated the cancellation process, with the contents of the Jiangning District Urban Management Bureau’s Weibo being merged with their WeChat official account.
Recently, many netizens have noted that numerous government new media accounts they followed on their phones have been shut down. In the past, people had to constantly switch between accounts to handle business and view updates. Maintaining a multitude of government new media accounts also added unnecessary workload for grassroots personnel.
According to official CCP statements, government new media refers to accounts representing government agencies and conducting public affairs on third-party platforms such as WeChat and Weibo, as well as independently developed mobile applications, serving as official online interactive platforms for collecting opinions, disseminating information, and serving the public.
In reality, the primary function of these government new media accounts is to monitor online public opinions. The official Party newspaper managed by the Central Party School of the CCP, “Study Times,” reported on the topic of “actively playing the guiding role of government new media in public opinion” in April of last year, stating that through “online guidance of government public opinions, shaping the mainstream discourse subject. At the same time, on the basis of authoritative recognition, guiding other discourse subjects to participate in online space governance…”
Netizens, however, argue that in the face of online public opinion, the government only resorts to censorship. A netizen named “Thunderstruck No.1” expressed that local governments, when facing online public opinion, focus only on deleting posts and censorship, ignoring the essence of the issues, which does not aid in resolving conflicts but rather exacerbates them, damaging government credibility.
Many netizens have expressed that these accounts not focusing on official matters should have been shut down long ago.
The last wave of government account shutdowns occurred in 2019. Following the release of the State Council Office’s opinion on advancing the healthy and orderly development of government new media at the end of 2018, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and other regions began the cleanup and rectification of a batch of government new media accounts.
Official CCP media reports that in recent years, various levels of government departments have followed suit in setting up government new media but have encountered several types of chaos in their daily operations.
According to the “Statistical Report on China’s Internet Development Status” released by the China Internet Network Information Center in March of this year, as of December last year, there were 146,638 government organization Weibo accounts certified by the Sina platform. Among them, Henan Province had the highest number of government organization Weibo accounts at 10,067 nationwide; followed by Guangdong Province with a total of 9,880 government organization Weibo accounts.
The CCP official media has reported that many local government new media accounts are operated by external technical personnel.
Now, considering the CCP’s tight financial situation, the closure of poorly operating accounts is seen as a necessary and unavoidable step.
In recent years, local government departments across mainland China have been facing financial difficulties. Data from the Ministry of Finance of the CCP on April 22 showed that in March, fiscal revenue, especially tax revenue, saw a continued widening decline compared to the previous year.
Since last year, regions like Xuzhou in Jiangsu have successively issued documents to strictly control the scale of non-staff personnel in government institutions and public service units, with the total number of non-staff personnel “reducing but not increasing,” and many government new media accounts in various regions are managed by non-staff personnel.
“Wuho Kuangshui,” a Weibo account with 2.35 million followers, certified as a film critic and honored as one of the most influential internet technology figures on Weibo in 2022, posted stating: “Facing financial constraints, redundant departments have to be cut. A bunch of local government new media either cannot report local news or help local residents solve tangible problems.”
Up Media recently reported that lifeless government new media accounts would be better off shutting down sooner rather than later.
Many netizens commented that as the government is running out of money, institutional media can be closed down too; television, radio, and newspapers could all be shut down.