Regulation of the social media: case study of China

Résumé En

Despite the late arrival of the Internet and social media in China, Chinese authorities steppedinto the regulation of these new communication tools earlier than many European andAmerican countries. Since the landing of the Internet in 1994 and the generalized use of socialmedia in the late 1990s, laws, administrative provisions, and regulations were adopted one after theother in China. However, the main objectives of the regulation vary in different epochs, due totechnical difficulties in earlier periods, the changing governmental priorities, and the strikingtechnological progress in China. After a detailed document analysis conducted about all of the 39social media-related legislations and regulations adopted from 1994 until now in China, the articleargues that social control is not always the prime concern for Chinese regulators of the Internet andsocial media. Throughout the period from 1994 to 2012, Chinese regulators aimed above all at settingup a general regulation framework and working out a set of feasible norms and standards for thetelecommunications and online activities. It is during the period of 2012-2017 that social control stoodat the core of the state regulation of social media. From 2018 onward, the priority of the regulationshifts again. Making full use of social media to boost the development of the E-commerce becomes animportant goal of the regulatory activities.