China's Xi vows to 'resolutely crack down' on online misconduct

Chinese leader Xi Jinping vowed to "resolutely crack down" on online misconduct and foster a "clean" cyberspace, state media reported Saturday, after authorities recently penalised social media companies for their content.

Beijing requires social media companies to moderate content on their platforms, with posts strictly controlled to avoid anything deemed to be too subversive, vulgar, pornographic or generally harmful from circulating.

China's top internet regulator said in September it would take action against ByteDance-owned news app Jinri Toutiao and Alibaba's internet browser company UCWeb for allegedly displaying harmful content.

That same month, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) announced a two-month campaign aiming "to regulate the malicious incitement of conflict and the promotion of violence and vicious currents" across social media.

State news agency Xinhua on Saturday quoted Xi as vowing to foster "a clean and upright cyberspace" at a communist party meeting held Friday.

Xi said online misconduct "pollutes social ethos", Xinhua reported, without giving details on what specific content the president was referring to.

"We must dare to draw the sword, resolutely crack down on such behaviour, sever the profit and industry chains behind it, and eliminate the soil and conditions that allow it to grow," he added, without going into further detail of how this would take place.

Xi stressed that "governing the online ecosystem is an important task in building China into a cyber power", Xinhua reported.

"It bears on the country's development and security, as well as the vital interests of the people," Xi said.

Three other popular digital platforms -- micro-blogging platform Weibo, short video app Kuaishou and Instagram-like Xiaohongshu -- were also penalised by the CAC in September for allegedly neglecting content management duties.

CAC said at the time that the measures would include "summonses for interviews, injunctions to correct breaches within a specified period, warnings and strict sanctions against those responsible".

It gave no further details about punishments.