Anti-spreading ‘rumors’, Chinese social networks display user addresses

Last weekend, several Chinese social networking platforms such as Zhihu, Douyin, Jinri Toutiao, Xiaohongshu announced that they will soon display users’ whereabouts based on IP addresses. Measures to prevent netizens from posing as locals and spreading rumors. According to the Zhihu Q&A website, the user’s address will be displayed next to each of their posts.

Weibo has displayed the address on the user’s personal page since last month, citing many fake news related to hot topics such as Russia’s attack on Ukraine, the Covid-19 epidemic.

Although the Chinese government has stepped up its regulation of online content over the past year, there are no official regulations requiring the platform to display users’ locations. In March, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said it would carry out a campaign to “clean up” online disturbances this year, including dispelling rumors.

According to the platforms, they only show the province/city where the user lives, or the country/region if the IP address is overseas. The full IP address is not displayed.

As Covid-19 cases surged, Chinese people also went online to express anger and frustration. In cities like Shanghai and Changchun, people complain of food shortages and supply chain disruptions. The CAC requires social networks to combat the spread of rumors.

As of August 2020, Douyin has more than 600 million users, and by the end of 2021, Kuaishou and Weibo have about 323 million and 250 million users respectively. The platform’s move marks the biggest effort since 2017 to bring transparency to network users’ identities. Five years ago, some companies required users to link an account with a phone number, which required a citizen ID to register.

Netizens split into two opinions before this information. Weibo user Haoyu said it will help reduce rumors and protect privacy since the address is not displayed specifically. Another Weibo user wanted the option to disable the feature. However, some others argue that it is too easy to “fake” IP addresses, so the new feature of social networks can be “useless”.

Du Lam (According to SCMP)