SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Three popular Chinese online video services have been temporarily shut down. They will likely reappear with "beefed-up oversight":
Beijing has shut down online video services of three popular Chinese media sites in a swift action that unleashed financial shockwaves and posed a firm warning to the country's online video industry: clean up, or close down.
China's internet shares tumbled after news of the unusually harsh clamp down spread, with Weibo Corp's down 6.1 percent, while SINA Corp, which has a stake in Weibo, fell 4.8 percent. That amounted to a combined $1.3 billion knock to the market value of both companies.
The Twitter-like service Sina Weibo, popular online video site ACFUN and news portal iFeng.com will have to stop video streaming services that violate the country's regulations, the TV and film watchdog said on Thursday.
"This will provide a clean and clear Internet space for the wide number of online users," the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television said in a brief statement on its website.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by tftp on Saturday June 24 2017, @03:29AM
You can say the same thing about driving a car. If you drive like a maniac, you can get shut down or locked up in prison. But if you toe the line, you will be perfectly fine.
I can't say what prompted the government to hit them with such a large clue stick, but, as others already mentioned, this is just to remind the businesses that they are treading on thin ice. Fear is a necessary part of forced compliance.