China launches crackdown on popular micro-drama industry

China is tightening its grip on the country's explosive online entertainment market with a aggressive, two-month nationwide campaign targeting its booming micro-short drama industry.

The National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA) launched the initiative to purge harmful, vulgar, and illegal content from the popular video format. Regulators aim to foster a "clean and healthy" digital environment as these ultra-short, serialized episodes—which usually last just a few minutes—continue to captivate hundreds of millions of mobile users across China, News.Az reports, citing Anadolu Agency.

The sweeping regulatory campaign is zeroing in on a wide range of content violations and "distorted social values," including:

Explicit and Negative Themes: Soft pornography, excessive violence, revenge plots, and vulgar titles.

Social and Cultural Norms: The promotion of money worship, ostentatious wealth, distorted views of marriage, and feudal superstitions.

Vulnerable Audiences: Content inappropriately involving children.

Intellectual Property: Piracy and widespread copyright violations.

To enforce the crackdown, provincial broadcasting authorities have been ordered to conduct aggressive inspections and random spot checks. At the same time, streaming platforms and production companies are required to run immediate self-assessments and scrub problematic content from their libraries.

However, Beijing isn't just looking to censor. The media watchdog stated it will actively support the creation of high-quality micro-dramas that reflect contemporary Chinese society, celebrate its cultural heritage, and help "tell China's story well" to a growing international audience.

The NRTA emphasized that this two-month enforcement push is only the beginning. Moving forward, authorities plan to establish a permanent, long-term monitoring mechanism to permanently oversee online audiovisual content.

News.Az 

By Aysel Mammadzada