Regulating Zhibo in China: Exploring multiple levels of self-regulation and stakeholder dynamics

Abstract

In recent years, user-generated live streaming platforms have grown significantly in their popularity. However, the circulation of objectionable live streaming content and the unpredictability and high-intensity user engagement generated by live streaming has posed challenges to the existing regulatory frameworks. In China, the situation of regulating Zhibo (literally ‘live streaming’) is arguably even more complex due to the rapid industrial changes, a mass scale of video content along with the Wanghong Economy, and fragmented internet governance. Drawing on interviews and analysis of regulatory documents, this study investigated the dynamic negotiations among regulatory actors in Chinese live streaming sectors, underscoring that the idea of multiple levels of self-regulation with minimal state oversight has become the principal strategy for regulating live streaming in a multiactor coordination context. Regulation of the Zhibo is characterized by a conflict between uneven accountability and decentralized regulatory activities in the contemporary regulatory regime.