BUZZKILL! China intensifies censorship of online music

The Ministry of Culture posted an announcement yesterday on its website stating that starting January 1st, 2016, Chinese online music providers will be “encouraged” to scrutinize the content of the music they provide before making it available to the public. Any music that the CCP might deem as potentially “harmful” to China’s stability should be removed lest the government be forced to take punitive action.
This assertive policy decision is the latest in a series of “cultural purges” that the Chinese government has enacted over the last few years to try and cleanse the Internet and Chinese society at large of anti-party sentiment and “cultural filth.” This policy will likely expand a system that many experts already consider to be one of the most advanced censorship mechanisms in the world.
The policy is also likely an attempt by Beijing to repair China’s reputation as being a market plagued with issues of music and entertainment piracy. Beginning April 1, 2016, the Ministry of Culture has asked online music streaming providers to regularly start sending in up-to-date information on all of their music.
China’s three largest Internet-related companies — Tencent, Alibaba and Baidu — all have music streaming platforms. As of now, none of them have issued any public responses.
Back in August, China blacklisted 120 songs that “threatened social security.” These tunes were reported to contain pornography, violence or content that was harmful to public morality. Many of the affected artists were from China’s burgeoning hip-hop scene.
So, expect to see more blacklists in the future, as music joins the ranks of TV, books and wordplay as forms of expression facing increased censorship in China in recent years.
But no matter how bad music censorship in China gets, at least we know that the Party would never dare to ban dancing. There would be too many pissed off aunties: