Crackdown on 'fandom' intensified

China's cyberspace watchdogs recently intensified their campaign against toxic sports "fandom" by cleaning up 1.6 million pieces of related illegal information and shutting down nearly 4,000 online accounts, regulators said in a statement on Wednesday.

The Cyberspace Administration of China stated that by punishing related accounts — as well as those that profit from illegally selling personal information, schedules or sports gear bearing fake signatures of star athletes — they aim to create a good environment for athletes who are training and preparing for matches, and ensure that sports events organizers can perform their duties smoothly.

According to the administration, it mainly targeted fandom accounts that were engaged in three types of behavior: "pack" leaders that frequently and maliciously insult rival athletes and coaches; those that provoked arguments and drew views by maliciously interpreting athletes' actions out of context or making sensational narratives about nonexistent romantic relationships; and those that pretended to belong to athletes or coaches and established fan groups to push for irrational rallying, from which they profited.