China’s cryptocurrency crackdown continues as Weibo has reportedly banned around 80 crypto influencers. Weibo’s management stated that these decisions were made in order to comply with domestic regulatory requirements, which aim to discourage speculation, trading, and promotion of digital currencies.
The Beijing-headquartered company said that it plans to keep monitoring customer complaints and carry out various investigations on speculative crypto trading.
As first reported by the SCMP, the accounts of approximately 80 so-called crypto influencers, each with 8M+ followers, were taken down from Weibo, which is among China’s most widely used social media networks. It should be apparent by now that Beijing intends to keep its restrictions over risky crypto-related activities.
The Weibo accounts, which reportedly promoted crypto-focused initiatives, had allegedly violated applicable regulatory guidelines in mainland China. They covered different areas like digital marketing, internet security, telecommunications, and trade/finance. This is according to statements from the Weibo Finance team.
The company confirmed that it will continue to “receive complaints from users” and conduct relevant investigations into illicit digital currency trading to adhere to applicable laws.
The account bans have been made following a nationwide crackdown on crypto-related activities, which was again initiated in August of last year. This particular crackdown was kicked off when the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) demanded the removal of around 12,000 crypto-focused accounts on websites such as Weibo and popular search engine Baidu, along with about 50,000 social media posts promoting digital currencies.
The CAC had previously stated that it may further extend its crackdown on unlawful securities activities, which tend to be found on various sites. The agency aims to abide by the rules strictly.
It’s worth noting that this closure of crypto-focused Weibo accounts is now part of a larger effort aimed at taking down certain types of online information. Weibo added that it had to deal with over 140,000 accounts that had allegedly been disseminating misinformation.
During the past 5-6 years, the Bitcoin and crypto space has gained many new users. However, the sector is plagued by numerous scams and various forms of fraudulent activities. It can be argued that cryptocurrencies have caused a great deal of harm to consumers and have yet to provide real value to the majority of users.