Censorship pays: the Chinese Communist Party's newspaper expands lucrative online scrubbing business
People.cn, the online unit of China’s influential People’s Daily, is boosting its numbers of human internet censors backed by artificial intelligence to help firms vet content on apps and ads, capitalizing on its unmatched Communist Party lineage.HT: naked capitalism, March 29
Demand for online censoring services provided by the Shanghai-listed People.cn has soared since last year after China tightened its already strict online censorship rules.
As a unit of the People’s Daily — the ruling Communist Party’s mouthpiece — it is seen by clients as the go-to online censor. Investors concur, lifting shares in People.cn by around 240 percent since the start of 2019.
“The biggest advantage of People.cn is its precise grasp of policy trends,” said An Fushuang, an independent analyst based in Shenzhen.
In recent years, China has shut tens of thousands of websites and social media accounts that contained what it said was illegal content as well as “vulgar” and pornographic material. Tibet, Taiwan, the 1989 crackdown on Tiananmen Square and even local government scandals are also sensitive topics prone to censorship.
People.cn has clinched deals with tech firms, including leading news aggregator Jinri Toutiao, to identify and delete material that does not meet government guidelines....
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