China tightens regulations covering online video sites

Broadcasting authorities on the mainland are requiring makers of online films to gain licenses and report their content before it is posted, tightening regulation of what in recent years has been a more freewheeling genre than China’s traditional film industry.

China’s online video sites have provided an accessible platform for filmmakers of all kinds to post their work, often of a shorter form than those in traditional cinemas. Microfilms, often produced by amateurs and students and increasingly by professional companies, have exploded over the past few years, stretching the boundaries of what can be shown.

This week’s update of a two-year-old regulation on the supervision of online dramas and microfilms has raised fears of stifling creativity. The broadcast administration now requires content makers to register with their real names, production companies to obtain operating licenses and report their content before it is put online, and video-hosting companies to keep records of uploaded content.

The State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television said the purpose is to improve supervision of the internet, cultivate a “healthy and civilised” online environment and prevent programmes with excessively sexual and violent content from having a harmful influence on society.

Wei Jiangang, who makes microfilms with homosexual themes, said the industry depicts a multitude of topics and the government considers some – such as sex and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender themes – “very sensitive”.

“The only purpose of such a policy I think is to affect the creativity of microfilm-making, and bring it into the regular censorship system so as to carry out ideological control of this gray area of online video,” Wei said. “In cyberspace, there are loads of various opinions and voices, so the government surely doesn’t want the online video market to escape censorship.”