World News

Surface-level, seems good idea. In practice, it depends entirely on who gets to define an "influencer", what is a "serious topic", what activities meet the threshold of "speaking on" that topic, and which universities' degrees will be respected and which won't. It seems like a very flexible framework that their government could use to remove nearly any person from any platform for any reason. If I post "fruit is good for you" on a social platform and someone else sees it, that falls under these rules as I understand them. I anticipate selective enforcement of these rules against those not aligned with the CCP, in fact the rules seems to be specifically written with that in mind.

This is funny because the US anti-intellectual MAGA movement is doing the exact opposite. People with degrees who know what the fuck they are doing are being shunned and idiots with feels are being rewarded.

What? You mean you'll have to actually KNOW something , before you blather on about it? That's un-American!

I like the idea of not letting stupid people spread misinformation on the internet (unless it's myself), but this is just gatekeeping the right to speak out in public about certain topics which I find deeply problematic.

I think the main focus here should be the word "influencers".

One thing is for a relatively unknown person to speak about any kind of topic even if they know nothing about it.

But when someone with millions of followers spreads misinfo, that is dangerous as it can end up killing lots of people.

People with a certain amount of followers should be held accountable for what they say the same way that a newspaper should.

Turkey requires a college degree to become president. Then they started revoking the college degrees of the opposition candidates.

I mean, it’s not really a horrible idea, so long as it’s not being used to promote propaganda. (Which considering the source- it is)

Influencers are fucking horrible. Popularity should not default to trustworthiness. Remember: it was this type of thing that led to the idea that vaccines cause autism.

Gating influencers behind having even a bachelor ya degree in whatever field they’re teeing to bullshit people into buying, will cut down on the amount of ignorance spread as a result.

Dr. Oz is a heart surgeon, but that doesn't prevent him from selling bullshit.

I can see how this would play out in the states. First you make it so only degreed people can talk about certain things. Then you dismiss them as educated elite ivory tower academics. Because we live in a nation that scorns experience and expertise.

Someone asked for an example the other day of something that didn't believe was true and I listed seven. They dismissed me with "I didn't ask for an encyclopedia." It was the best way they could ignore that someone knew more than them and not have to actually process the information they explicitly asked for.

This is quintessential “Modern CPP”

Take a real problem screwing up the western world bad (like influencer mis/disinformation), and smash it in a way only their massive state apparatus can…

Superficially.

It’s “proof” their party line works and, as always, a good way to control the populace, if abused. It’s probably effective, but not as effective as it appears on the surface.

I’m sympathetic here.

In past years I was a “free internet” libertarian leaning diehard, but something has to be done about algos boosting shameless outrage peddlers; it’s literally destroying the planet and our collective psyche, just for short term corporate benefit (Or corpo-state benefit in China's case, as its “Big Tech” is under the party's thumb). But China just took the problem and used it as an excuse for more control.

This seems like it could be abused pretty easily. IDK are there any Chinese citizens here to comment

Those damn Commie bastards!

Hey! That's actually not a bad idea. Can we do that in our government, as well as dopey influencers? Start with PeeWee Mengele.

You know if the title was just “China bans influencers” I’d be ok with it.

I'm a big fan of free speech but also not a fan of idiot speech. Conflicted on this one.

I'm not sure that'll solve anything. Plenty of people with degrees are idiots too. And many people without degrees may have long running experience in topics they talk about due to other reasons than getting a degree.

Man

Of all dystopias why is Deus Ex becoming true?

This has shades of a conversation you can have in that game's Hong Kong where a bartender tells JC something to the effect of "China's 'repression' has ironically preserved people's ability to keep on like, LIVING. Whereas the United States with all its freedom was carved up and eaten by megacorps"

The idea is great on paper, but execution is everything.

I'm conflicted. On one hand, I'm American and believe in free speech. On the other hand, I want assholes to be held accountable for lying.

So conflicted.

Makes sense to me, for certain topics/areas.
Australia has a law about not being able to give financial advice without a qualification to do so, so 'influencers' who cover topics such as banking and investments do need to be careful about how they present their content because we dont want people going into financial ruin thinking "DollarGodMoneyMaker" on youtube is trustworthy and knows what the fuck he is talking about.

Is this really true? I cast suspicion because to me it sounds like they are trying to convince the world that whatever comes out of their influencers about the topics they are interested to push is of higher quality than the rest of the world.

Oh the media keeps reporting that there are human rights abuse going on some place remote. Those are obvious lies because our double MBA PhD influencer is quite clear that everyone is happy.

Yes it would be nice if only knowledgeable people spoke on complex subjects in a language that allows less knowledgeable people to understand. But one has to be able to trust what is being said.

There's no shortage of bad faith influencers who have degrees and misinform anyway. Such laws shouldn't be centered on pressuring people into expensive educational programs. They should focus on outlawing claims that are demonstrably false and harmful.

Idk how to feel about this. If this news came from the UK, the replies would've been:

you got a loicense for that, mate?

But because it's China, people will gladly glaze this move.

If youre an influencer with millions of followers a degree should be a small road block. Unless you dum.