CHINA’S six most popular social media platforms required the accounts of content creators, or influencers, with more than 500,000 or 1 million followers, to show their real names or the names of their financial backers on their profile pages.

The social media platforms are WeChat, Sina Weibo, video-sharing platforms Douyin and Kuaishou, YouTube-like Bilibili, and lifestyle-sharing platform Xiaohongshu.

Content creators are individuals or organizations that create, publish and distribute content independently through social media platforms.

All social media platforms in China require users to register by inputting personal or institutional verified ID information, but there hasn’t been a requirement for users to display their real names publicly.

In a statement issued Monday evening, WeChat announced that it is implementing the policy to “enhance the credibility” of content creator accounts and “facilitate public supervision for the public interest.”

According to the statement, individual WeChat accounts with more than 500,000 followers will display the registered individual’s real name on their account profile. For those accounts with the same amount of fans, registered by organizations, the enterprise or organization names will be displayed publicly.(China Daily)