Operation Qinglang


Operation Qinglang is an Internet campaign undertaken annually by the Cyberspace Administration of China. First launched in 2016, the campaign has become annual since 2020. It mainly consists of cracking down on the use of the Internet to spread information suspected of violating Chinese laws. The key targets of the campaign vary from year to year. Various places in China have also launched corresponding measures to respond to the national Qinglang campaign.

Major campaigns

2016

The content for the 2016 campaign included the "centralized rectification of apps involving children and teenagers", the "special governance of website navigation websites", the "special campaign to combat the spread of illegal and irregular information through cloud storage", the "special rectification of illegal WeChat public accounts", and the "special rectification of travel websites". On November 25, the Cyberspace Administration of China published a document titled "The Cyberspace Administration of China Leads the 'Qinglang' Series of Special Actions in 2016 to Target Internet Problems and Form a Continuous Deterrent." The document said that during this action, a total of 1.045 million accounts and 1.29 million spaces and groups that spread obscene, pornographic, violent, and bloody information were shut down, and more than 17,000 criminal suspects were arrested.

2017 to 2019

Some local government network supervision departments used "Qinglang" as a code name to carry out Internet governance actions. In 2019, Hebei launched the "Qinglang·Yanzhao Net Cleaning 2019" campaign. During this period, the CAC also carried out internet governance actions. For example, starting in January 2019, the CAC launched a campaign for network ecology governance, which lasted for six months.

2020

In May 2020, the phenomenon of minors becoming online anchors, such as the case of Zhong Meimei, a boy from Hegang, Heilongjiang, who became famous for imitating his teacher, continued to generate heated public debate. On May 22, 2020, the Cyberspace Administration of China issued a notice entitled "The Cyberspace Administration of China Launches the 2020 Operation Qinglang", stating that the action would last for eight months starting from May 22. The notice indicated that the "Qinglang" campaign in 2020 would focus on rectifying online content such as pornography, vulgarity, cyberbullying, malicious marketing, and infringement of citizens' personal privacy.
On July 13, the CAC issued the "Notice on Carrying Out the 2020 'Qinglang' Special Rectification of the Online Environment for Minors During the Summer Vacation", which proposed to rectify seven aspects of issues related to the growth of minors, including online learning sections, bad animation and comics, live streaming, short video website platform information, group chat forums, malicious pop-ups, bottomless idol worship, fan circle infighting, and game recharge. Specifically, it included rectifying content such as Blue Whale Challenge, "Death Suffocation", and Doki Doki Literature Club!. As of October, a total of 13,942 illegal websites and more than 5.78 million illegal and irregular accounts were shut down.

2021

In 2021, several controversial incidents involving the entertainment industry occurred, including the milk dumping incident for the contestants of Youth With You, the surrogacy and abandonment scandal of Zheng Shuang, the Kris Wu rape case, the old photo scandal of Zhang Zhehan, the banning incident of Zhao Liying's fan circle chaos, and the mutual attacks between fan groups on the Internet. Therefore, the rectification of the "chaos" in the Chinese mainland entertainment industry is considered by the media and public opinion to be the focus of this action.
On May 8, 2021, the State Council Information Office held a press conference to introduce the 2021 Qinglang campaign, stating that the 2021 actions were divided into eight special actions:
  • "Clean Up the Internet and Combat Historical Nihilism": This initiative aims to eliminate information that distorts the history of the Chinese Communist Party, the nation, and the military, and promotes historical nihilism, creating a positive online environment for the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party.
  • "Clean and Bright Online Environment for the Spring Festival": Rectifying harmful information on homepages and push notifications from lifestyle service platforms;
  • "Clean and Clear: Governance of Algorithm Abuse": Regulating the behavior and order of using recommendation algorithms for the segmented dissemination of news information;
  • "Clean Up the Internet: Combating Online Trolls, Traffic Fraud, and Black PR": Cleaning up online trolls, and so on.
  • "Clean and Bright Online Environment for Minors": A concentrated effort to address harmful information that affects the physical and mental health of teenagers and hinders their online learning.
  • "Clean and Bright: Rectifying Prominent Issues with Push Notifications": This includes addressing issues such as mobile app push notifications recommending illegal "self-media" information.
  • "Clean and Standardized Website Account Operations": This initiative aims to rectify illegal registration and authentication practices, as well as the impersonation of Party and government organs, media outlets, institutions, and celebrities. A number of illegal and non-compliant accounts would be shut down. The initiative also addresses malicious marketing practices such as exploiting current political events, clickbait headlines, sexually suggestive content, and large-scale plagiarism.
  • "Clean Up the Internet and Rectify the Chaos in Online Entertainment and Hot Topics Rankings": Regulate the online behavior of celebrities and their affiliated organizations and official fan groups, and crack down on fan support activities, and so on.
CAC deputy director Sheng Ronghua said that Operation Qinglang aimed to align with Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping's vision of cyberspace as "the common spiritual home of hundreds of millions of people" and follow his directive that if "Cyberspace has a clear sky and a good ecology it is in the interests of the people, but if cyberspace is smoggy and ecologically deteriorating, this is not in the interests of the people".

Official actions

Fan circle crackdown
On June 15, the CAC launched the "Qinglang·Crackdown on Fan Circle Chaos" special campaign. By early August, the campaign had cleaned up more than 150,000 pieces of illegal information, dealt with more than 4,000 accounts, and closed more than 1,300 groups. On August 23, several official Weibo accounts of Zhao Liying's fan group were banned, becoming the first fan group to be banned on a large scale for "mutual tearing" since the "Qinglang" campaign began. On August 24, Zhao Liying's studio was banned from Weibo for 15 days due to mismanagement, becoming the first person in the platform's history to be punished in this way. On August 27, the CAC issued a notice on further strengthening the governance of the chaos in the "fan circle," requiring the rectification of the chaos in the "fan circle" and the cancellation of the "celebrity artist rankings". Subsequently, Sina Weibo carried out rectification work such as "requiring name changes" and banning thousands of fan organization accounts. At the end of September, the "Douban Goose Group" was suspended for two months for rectification.
On September 2, the General Office of the National Radio and Television Administration issued the "Notice on Further Strengthening the Management of Cultural and Artistic Programs and Their Personnel", which proposed eight measures, including "resolutely resisting illegal and immoral personnel", and explicitly stated that idol development programs, celebrity children's reality shows and other programs should not be broadcast. On the same day, the Publicity Department of the CCP Central Committee issued the "Notice on Carrying Out Comprehensive Governance Work in the Cultural and Entertainment Field". The department head accepted an interview with reporters and asked questions, stating that industry management should be further strengthened and management measures for actor brokerage agencies, online performance brokerage agencies, etc. should be studied and formulated.
On September 7, the State Administration of Radio and Television held a "symposium for radio, television and online audiovisual literary and artistic workers", requiring literary and artistic practitioners to "always regard loving the Party and loving the country as their duty and responsibility". On September 10, local radio and television stations, the China Association of Performing Arts, and 14 online platforms held a meeting and released relevant measures: KuGou, Sina Weibo, IQIYI, Tencent Video, Youku, Bilibili, Migu Video, Toutiao, Douyin, Kuaishou, QQ Music, Kuwo Music, Migu Music, and Xiaohongshu jointly released the "Construction a Clean and Healthy Online Cultural Ecosystem Self-Discipline Convention". On November 23, the CAC issued the "Notice on Further Strengthening the Regulation of Online Information of Entertainment Stars", which strictly controls the content of online information of entertainment stars and establishes a negative list to prohibit online rumors, malicious traffic boosting, false information and other activities of entertainment stars.
Other actions
On February 4, the CAC launched the 2021 "Clean and Bright Online Environment for Spring Festival" special campaign. By the end of March, the "Clean and Bright Online Environment for Spring Festival" campaign had banned more than 7,200 illegal live streamers and dealt with more than 70,000 accounts. In May, Xiaohongshu began removing content related to flaunting wealth and excessive eating and drinking from its platform in accordance with the 2021 Clean-up Campaign. On July 21, the CAC launched the "Clean and Bright Summer Online Environment Rectification Campaign for Minors", explicitly prohibiting minors under the age of 16 from appearing on camera and engaging in live streaming and other similar behaviors. On August 27, the CAC launched a special campaign to clean up commercial websites and self-media platforms that illegally collect, edit, and publish financial information. By early September, more than 3,000 accounts, ranging from commercial websites to self-media, had been dealt with. On August 27, the CAC launched a special campaign to address prominent issues related to push notifications in mobile applications.
On September 1, the "Notice on Further Strengthening Management and Effectively Preventing Minors from Becoming Addicted to Online Games" was implemented, which further strengthened management measures in response to the problem of minors overusing or even becoming addicted to online games. On September 8, relevant officials from the Publicity Department of the CCP Central Committee and the National Radio and Television Administration, together with the Cyberspace Administration of China, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and other departments, held talks with key online game companies such as Tencent and NetEase, as well as game account rental and sales platforms and game live streaming platforms. On October 29, the Publicity Department of the CCP Central Committee and the National Radio and Television Administration held talks with the Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Hunan Broadcasting and Television Stations regarding the problem of "excessive entertainment" in satellite TV programs. On November 19, the first China Internet Civilization Conference opened in Beijing in the morning.