China investigates domestic social media sites in attempt to police content

The Great Firewall locks the country off from external influences, and now China is cracking down on internal dissidents

Chinese authorities are investigating the country's largest social media platforms, for alleged violations of cyber security laws.

In the Communist Party's latest push to maintain control of the internet inside China's borders, the Office for Cyberspace Administration is investigating Weibo, Baidu Tieba and WeChat.

The administration says that the social media sites have not been adequately moderating content, and have been used to spread terrorism-related material and information that the Party deems ‘obscene'.

‘Users are spreading violence, terror, false rumours, pornography and other hazards to national security, public safety, social order,' the regulator's statement said.

With popular Western sites like Facebook and Twitter banned inside China, home-grown alternatives like Weibo are incredibly popular. However, the Communist Party is on a campaign to crack down on sites not under its direct control: in May, the Office for Cyberspace Administration announced a new regulation that required all services at online news sites to be overseen by party-sanctioned editorial staff.

China's internet is one of the most tightly-controlled in the world: Western services, such as Google Maps, are banned, and the Party is now cracking down on VPNs that can be used to access such content from inside the country.

In general, the locals know what content they should stay away from discussing - but despite this, and the ease of tracking users, objections still occur.

The investigation of China's own social media sites will probably prompt them to do even more to curate their content, further narrowing the Chinese population's ability to protest.