China "declared war" to bragging online
Chinese officials claim that showing off money and displaying branded invoices online is offensive content and widens the gap between the rich and the poor.
"Today's bill: RMB 108,876 (US$17,000)," a Chinese blogger recently posted on her Douyin account, which has 28 million followers, in which she recorded a one-night stay in a luxury hotel in Chengdu. A variety of exotic cuisines. The video has received millions of views, but it will now be considered a violation of China's new Internet regulations.
The Chinese authorities have recently asked social media platforms to delete videos showing off their wealth and their rich lifestyles. Such videos are becoming more popular and attracting audiences, but they show the gap between the rich and the poor in China.
The blogger above deleted his videos of enjoying specialties and visiting expensive hotels. This guy has only posted videos of enjoying popular dishes recently.
Zhang Yongjun, a senior official with China's cyberspace regulator, said that the state "will strengthen management and control so that Internet platforms feel they have a sword on their heads".
China has not yet defined what it means to show off wealth on social media, but officials did give specific examples, such as showing off receipts or over-ordering.
"The standard is the influence of the content," Mr. Zhang said. "Does viral content inspire people to live healthy, ambitious and work hard for a better life, or is it just for small desires?"
In December 2020, Chinese bloggers showed off their dishes at a luxury hotel in Chengdu in a video on Douyin. Photo: New York Times.
The social network Douyin announced that it had locked about 4,000 accounts for two months, and one of them posted a video of people spreading funds in public. At the same time, the Instagram-like app Xiaohongshu announced in November that it tagged nearly 9,000 bragging posts between May and October.
Credit Suisse is a Swiss financial company founded in 1856 and headquartered in Switzerland. It is estimated that 1% of China's population owns 31% of the country's assets.
Popularity Coronavirus disease It is said that this further exposes the gap between the rich and the poor in China, because many rich people continue to squander luxury goods, while the poor are struggling to make ends meet.
The high housing prices in Chinese cities and the increasingly fierce competition for employment among intellectuals have made Chinese young people feel that the "Chinese Dream" is becoming more and more distant.
Posts with bragging content on the Internet have long attracted widespread attention, and China is no exception. In 2018, in China, there was a movement to take pictures of piles of money lying on the ground, surrounded by expensive items. Some Chinese companies even provide luxury cars, money, and brand-name bags to help customers look rich in videos posted online.
Two women in a shopping mall in Beijing, China, September 2020. Photo:Reuters.
However, the Chinese authorities began to notice this trend in July 2020, when China's Internet regulator announced a plan to "completely eliminate messages that promote bad values ​​such as showing off wealth. Yes, luxury and pleasure."
The movement was widely disseminated by the Chinese media, among which Xinhua News Agency published an editorial stating that "showing off wealth undermines social morality." Xiaohongshu recently asked users to make videos to attack their bragging behavior.
Although China has issued a strong statement on its anti-corruption campaign, it is unclear how the Chinese authorities will implement law enforcement measures. The social media networks Douyin and Kuaishou were fined US$31,000 in October for disseminating content that Chinese authorities deem "promoting excessive consumption".
However, Chinese social networks are still full of ostentatious content. The social network Xiaohongshu still showed a large number of results related to luxury brands. One person showed 121 pairs of designer shoes, while another person compared the value of expensive scarves.
Ruan Jin (follow New York Times)
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