Influential social media accounts should be scored and inspected annually to provide ideological guidance and strengthen the influence of Marxist theory, according to commentary published in a Party magazine.
Influential opinion makers on social media should have self-awareness and discipline, and those accounts should be evaluated and inspected, wrote Li Yanyan, an associate professor at the School of Marxism Studies of the University of Science and Technology in Beijing, in Red Flag Manuscript, a bi-monthly magazine of the Communist Party of China.
Opinion leaders wield considerable influence online, so much so that ordinary netizens are overwhelmed and drowned out, Li said.
For a better cyberspace environment and to eliminate fake news, Li suggested social media accounts undergo Marxist theory assessment. It added that textbooks and classes on Marxism should be made available to Net users.
"A credit scoring system and annual inspections of social media accounts could conflict with existing laws and regulations, which would create multiple regulatory standards," He Hui, a professor at the School of International Journalism and Communication of Beijing Foreign Studies University, told the Global Times.
It would be difficult to decide who should be responsible for the proposed evaluation system and what standards should be applied, as both individual and business operators are already regulated by certain laws, He said. "We have to be very cautious in making this decision - if the system is too tough, it could backfire." On the Marxist theory assessment, He said he is against its rigid ideological administration on the public.
Wang Sixin, a law professor at the Communication University of China, said that an evaluation system of influential social media accounts can be designed to complement laws. "Although we have laws to regulate cyberspace, law enforcement always has vulnerabilities," said Wang.
