Weibo Suspends 21 K-pop Fan Accounts For Irrational Star-chasing Behavior
Weibo, China's largest social media platform, suspends 21 K-pop fan accounts for 'irrational star-chasing behavior.'
K-pop fans are the latest victims of China's celebrity culture crackdown.
Weibo, China's heavily censored version of Twitter, announced Sunday that it had suspended 21 fan accounts for various K-pop artists for engaging in "irrational star-chasing behavior."
The suspended accounts belong to members of popular South Korean pop acts such as BTS, Blackpink, EXO, and IU. The temporary bans follow the suspension of a fan account dedicated to BTS artist Jimin.
"The account is temporarily banned from posting due to violating Weibo's community regulations," reads a notice on the Jimin fan club's account. Weibo also noted that several blog posts had been deleted.
Weibo stated that it "strongly opposes such irrational star-chasing behavior and will take action against it," adding that it will "promote rational star-chasing activities and maintain community order."
Entertainment Industry Under Attack
The broader entertainment industry has come under attack by the ruling Communist Party in recent weeks, as President Xi Jinping's crackdown on private enterprise has expanded beyond its initial targets in the technology sector.
Zhao Wei, one of China's most prominent actresses, had her online presence largely removed overnight. Her Weibo fan page has been deactivated. The films and television shows in which she starred — some dating all the way back to the early 1990s — have been removed from streaming platforms, along with her name from the cast lists.
While the government has previously targeted individual Chinese celebrities, the recent crackdown is broader in scope and more severe in severity, with their presence largely wiped from the country's internet.
Likewise, authorities have targeted the celebrity fan culture that is popular among China's youth. China's Cyberspace Administration (CAC) recently announced ten measures aimed at "cleaning up" what it called the "chaos" of celebrity fan clubs, including the prohibition of attempts to rank celebrities by popularity and tightening regulations surrounding talent agencies and fan club accounts. A day earlier, popular video platform iQiyi announced the cancellation of all idol talent shows, citing their "unhealthiness."
In the Past
Some comments on Chinese social media compared the crackdown to the Cultural Revolution, a decade of political and social turmoil between 1966 and 1976 during which arts and culture were restricted to propagating party propaganda.
The Communist Party, which views popular culture as a critical ideological battleground, has long maintained a stranglehold on the entertainment industry through stringent censorship. However, it has aided in its growth by funding domestic films and television shows aimed at luring the Chinese public away from Hollywood and other foreign productions.
The party has become increasingly obsessed with ideological and cultural control under Xi. The glitz of celebrity and fandom are increasingly viewed as a pernicious influence — particularly on the country's youth.
