Founder Jack Ma has faced increasing pressure from the government after he criticized Chinese regulators for stifling innovation

The Chinese government has asked that Alibaba Group Holding dispose of its media assets, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

The e-commerce giant owns the South China Morning Post (SCMP), a 117-year-old English-language newspaper based in Hong Kong.

Beijing has sought ways to reduce Alibaba’s influence on society. What started out as an e-commerce company now touches many aspects of Chinese people’s lives, including their wallets via Ant Group.

Bloomberg later reported that the SCMP is among the properties the government wants sold, citing a person familiar with the matter.

Apart from acquiring the SCMP in 2016, Alibaba has aggressively invested in media businesses including YouTube-like streaming platform Youku Tudou, entertainment company Huayi Brothers and video-sharing site Bilibili.

Alibaba has capital tie-ups with multiple state-owned media companies, holding a stake in a unit of China Business Network, which is part of Shanghai Media Group. It has an interest in a unit of leading broadcaster Hunan Television.

Founder Jack Ma has faced increasing pressure from the Beijing government since his October 2020 speech criticizing Chinese regulators for stifling innovation.

Ma and Alibaba built up a sprawling portfolio of media assets over the years, spanning BuzzFeed-style online outlets, newspapers, television-production companies, social-media and advertising assets. Alibaba has a major stake in the Twitter-like Weibo.

Ant Group’s initial public offering, slated for November, was postponed, with Alibaba coming under antitrust review the following month. Ant CEO Simon Hu resigned Friday.

The authorities have toughened their stance toward the Alibaba group as a whole, so the sale of media assets is likely a part of that, a source with ties to a regional government said. This may be the start of a push to dismantle the group, including the media segment.