China’s biggest short video platform Douyin will stop influencers who post content involving politics, economics, law and healthcare, letting third-party advertisers upload commercials to their channels. According to the TikTok sister app’s latest notice to short video channels, the rule will take effect on Wednesday. A U-turn on a previous decision to allow influencers to authorize PR personnel to update their channels, the decision will have a visible impact on channels, and mean influencers make less money than before. ByteDance-owned Douyin said the change “does not affect creators’ other cash or monetization capabilities nor does it end influencers’ creation on the above serious topics” after the rule was misunderstood by the public as meaning the platform no longer supported coverage of political and financial issues. [Jiemian, in Chinese]
