Chinas Weibo banishes 80 prominent crypto influencers – South China Morning Post

The accounts of 80 popular cryptocurrency influencers, each with more than 8 million followers, have been removed from one of Chinas most popular social media apps, as Beijing maintains its tight grip over crypto activities.

The Weibo accounts, which promoted cryptocurrencies, had breached eight regulations in China covering areas such as marketing, internet safety, telecommunications, trade and finance, Weibo Finance said in a statement on Tuesday.

The Beijing-based firm said it would continue to receive complaints from users and initiate investigations on illegal virtual currency trading information in accordance with local laws.

The account suspensions follow a major nationwide crackdown on crypto speculation in August 2022, when the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) ordered the removal of 12,000 crypto-related accounts on websites including Weibo and search engine Baidu, and 51,000 social media posts promoting virtual assets.

At the time, the CAC said it would continue to strengthen its crackdown on illegal securities activities that exist on those platforms and strictly uphold related rules.

The latest closure of crypto-related Weibo accounts is part of a wider cleansing of online information by the company, which said it dealt with more than 140,000 accounts involved in spreading false or harmful information.

In September 2021, 10 top government agencies in China jointly declared a broad range of cryptocurrency-related activities as illegal financial activities.

However, activities related to virtual assets continue to exist in China, with some operating in a legal grey area.

Still, the government has remained steadfast in cracking down on cryptocurrency mining, which involves intensive energy consumption.

Prosecutors recently brought one of the countrys largest miners of the open-source, public cryptocurrency Filecoin to court, charging four executives with crimes including organising and leading a pyramid scheme involving more than 600 million yuan (US$82 million).

Additional reporting by Lilian Zhang

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Chinas Weibo banishes 80 prominent crypto influencers - South China Morning Post