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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

There are plenty of dumb as doornails graduates as well so ..

Americans: "This is censorship" Also hundreds of American dumbass youtubers: "Covid vaccine makes you a transhuman robot; drink horse de-wormer instead. " Also american dumb shit tech ceo's talking out of their asses about shit they never studied: "Trans people are a conspiracy against humanity." The list goes on and on.

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.

Curious to see if this leads to licenses or degrees being revoked as universities have their name tied to what people are saying.

There's so much where this could be used to silence people, I can't trust this. What if you're an expert in a related field to the "serious" topic and disagree with the mainstream opinion held by experts within that field? Who gets to decide what constitutes a "serious" topic?

I just keep thinking of the recent Ms. Rachel controversy where conservative voices basically said she should stay out of talking on Palestine because she was "only" a children's educator. But one should be able to express their opinion on this serious matter even if you aren't an expert, and yeah, even if you're a major influencer.

I want societies to address misinformation and disinformation campaigns as much as the next person, but to be clear, I just don't trust governments to be the ones to do that. Granted governments are admittedly experts in misinformation and disinformation, so at least we can rest assured that experts have eyes on it though...

Apparently people with degrees cannot lie

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.

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

While I am pretty skeptical of US-style polemics on free speech, I of course support free expression, strong journalistic culture, limiting the influence of oligarch propaganda and significant safeguards to censorship.

That being said there are clear externalities to easy access to digital content distribution platforms that prioritize engagement above all else and do not bear responsibility for their actions.

I of course would never trust the CCP on this, but I think in the long term the externalities inherent to social media distribution will have to be accounted for.

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

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

I'm sure there's ways to see it as a bad thing, but the idea of only letting experts on a subject speak publicly about the subjects sounds like it could be really beneficial, particularly in some areas.

Of course if universities are corrupted or controlled it's definitely a bad thing. And of course shitty people are always going to be trying to control whatever mechanism or criteria keeps certain people from speaking.

But it's a nice idea.

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.

seems like a way to silence dissident speak, or rhetoric, anything critical of the CCP.

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

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"