CAC fines Douban over unlawful release of information

The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said that Beijing authorities fined Douban’s operating entity $235,000 and regulators demanded ‘immediate rectifications’ from the company

The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said on Thursday it had summoned and fined social media company Douban over unlawful release of information, as Beijing steps up efforts to control and ‘clean up’ the internet space.

The internet watchdog said in a statement that Beijing authorities fined Douban’s operating entity 1.5 million yuan ($235,000) and regulators demanded ‘immediate rectifications’ from the company.

Douban, an online platform where tens of millions of Chinese users review films and discuss various social topics, said its reply function had been suspended on Thursday and would be resumed on Dec. 17.

The CAC did not give other details on the reason for the fine.

But it added that it would ‘seriously handle’ relevant representatives of Douban and said the company had been fined a total of 9 million yuan ($1.41 million) in November.

In October this year, Douban announced that it would carry out rectifications for chaotic user account operations. It said it would severely crack down on the reappearance of closed accounts with similar names, and deal with illegal information in users’ registered name.

Certain functions of apps in China have been suspended over unlawful or ‘lowbrow’ content, and apps have been temporarily removed from apps stores for similar reasons in the past.

According to commercial inquiry platform Tianyancha, in April this year, Beijing Douwang Technology Co., Ltd. was fined about 16,000 yuan ($2512.09) for violating advertising law. In August this year, the company was fined 40,000 yuan ($6280.22) for publishing and disseminating online publications that promote obscenity, pornography, gambling and violence. In November this year, the company was fined 30,000 yuan ($4710.17) again for illegally using the Olympic logo. In addition, the company is associated with a number of infringement disputes and reputation rights disputes.