Media Regulator Prohibits Parodies

In another blow to the country’s video-streaming sector, China has further tightened its regulations on online videos, calling for local governments to scrub from the web those parodies and adaptations that are based on copyrighted content.

“Some online programs, which are based on revisions or remakes of other copyrighted and original works, have had a significantly damaging influence on society,” a statement issued by the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT) said on Thursday.

The SAPPRFT has especially targeted online videos uploaded by ordinary internet users and asked provincial-level and local governments to step up their web-monitoring efforts and correct such “illegal practices.”

The new rule is expected to pose a serious challenge to online-video sites, most of which use the so-called “re-creation” business model, in which much of their content is user-generated and based on copyrighted programs.

The number of such online video sites, which have seen many viewers attracted to their humorous and sometimes sensational videos, has grown rapidly in recent years.

Earlier this month, online video platform Bilibili Inc., which had 72 million monthly active users at the end of last year, filed to raise up to $400 million in a New York initial public offering, just days after rival iQiyi made a similar filing. 

The SAPPRFT’s move to eliminate parodies comes after net regulations began to shift in June, when the country’s cybersecurity law expanded from covering politically sensitive online content — such as current-affairs news — to pop culture material.

Since then, many online platforms, including Weibo Corp. and news aggregator Toutiao, have fallen afoul of the regulators.

In January, Weibo was asked to temporarily suspend part of its services, most notably its search-ranking and trending functions, after being criticized for spreading what authorities called “obscene and wrongly oriented content.” 

Contact reporter Mo Yelin (yelinmo@caixin.com)