Internet Security

China Cracks Down on ‘Chaotic’ Celebrity Fan Culture After Scandals

Published 5 years ago in 19th September 2021

By John

China Cracks Down on ‘Chaotic’ Celebrity Fan Culture After Scandals

(Reuters) China cracked down on what it described as a “chaotic” celebrity fan culture on Friday, barring platforms from publishing popularity lists and regulating the sale of fan merchandise after a series of controversies involving artists.The country’s top internet watchdog said it would take action against the dissemination of “harmful information” in celebrity fan groups and close down discussion channels that spread celebrity scandals or “provoke trouble”.Platforms will no longer be able to publish lists of popular celebrity individuals and fan groups must be regulated, the watchdog said.The internet regulator is also barring variety shows from charging fans to vote online for their favorite acts and has spoken out against enticing netizens to buy celebrity merchandise.Regulators need to “increase their sense of responsibility, mission and urgency to maintain online political and ideological security,” the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said in a statement.China has stringent rules on content ranging from video games to movies to music, and censors anything it believes violates core socialist values. The crackdown on celebrity fan culture also comes amid a wider regulatory campaign against the country’s Internet giants.CELEBRITY MISBEHAVIOROnline celebrity fan clubs have become a widespread phenomenon in China with local newspaper The Paper projecting the country’s “idol economy” could be worth 140 billion yuan ($21.59 billion) by 2022.But they have also been criticized for their influence over minors and for causing social disorder, as competing fan clubs have been seen trading verbal abuse online or spending large amounts of money to vote for their favorite stars on idol competition programs.When Canadian-Chinese pop star Kris Wu was detained by Beijing police last month on suspicion of sexual assault, his fan groups come to his defense on social media. Most of these fan accounts, along with Wu’s online accounts, were later shut down.China’s Netflix equivalent, iQiyi, also drew fire earlier this year after fans of one of its talent shows were filmed wasting milk in their bid to qualify to vote. On Thursday iQiyi said it would no longer broadcast idol competition shows.Chinese authorities have also been targeting domestic celebrities after a number of controversies.In January, actor Zheng Shuang became engulfed in a surrogacy controversy and she was later probed by tax authorities. On Friday, Shanghai tax authorities said they had decided to fine her 299 million yuan for tax evasion.Separately, Chinese video platforms on Friday took down films starred or directed by Zhao Wei, one of China’s biggest stars, citing “relevant laws and regulations” which prompted widespread online speculation over the reason. Her name was also removed from online casting lists.Chinese celebrities have been subjected to such treatment in the past when they have fallen foul of the authorities or public sentiment. Zhao’s management agency, Pulin Saisi, told Reuters it had no knowledge of the situation.$1=6.4849 Chinese yuanSource: Reuters; Reporting by David Stanway and Brenda Goh; Aditional reporting by Sophie Yu; Editing by Gerry Doyle, Ana Nicolaci da Costa and Tomasz Janowski Aug. 26, 2021, at 10:42 p.m.
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How a national security threat label has reignited Indonesia’s LGBTQ debate

Advertisement Asia How a national security threat label has reignited Indonesia’s LGBTQ debate Indonesia last October classified the “spread of LGBTQ culture” as one of the country’s non-military threats. A series of developments thrust the provision into the public eye this month, sparking a debate. A street vendor walks past a banner reading ‘Indonesia

Published 1 week ago in 28th July 2026

Asia

How a national security threat label has reignited Indonesia’s LGBTQ debate

Indonesia last October classified the “spread of LGBTQ culture” as one of the country’s non-military threats. A series of developments thrust the provision into the public eye this month, sparking a debate.

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SINGAPORE: For more than eight months, a provision tucked away in an Indonesian presidential regulation on national defence drew little public attention.

In an appendix to Presidential Regulation No. 111/2025 on the General National Defence Policy signed in October last year, the government classified the “spread of LGBTQ culture” as one of the country’s non-military threats.

The clause, referring to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and queer culture, appeared alongside a range of other threats deemed capable of affecting national resilience. They included illegal trafficking, natural resource theft, terrorism, atheism and radicalism.

A presidential regulation is a legally binding regulation published in the State Gazette, while General National Defence Policy documents are highly technical and usually attract little public attention outside government and defence circles.

But a series of developments thrust the provision into the public eye this month, sparking a debate on the place of LGBTQ issues in state policy and the extent to which social issues should be framed within Indonesia’s defence strategy.

The issue quickly spread beyond social media into mainstream Indonesian media with national outlets including Antara, Kumparan, and Tempo examining the regulation and prompting public responses from senior government officials.

Some observers and activists say the clause could heighten discrimination against LGBTQ individuals in society, even as Indonesian ministers have defended the regulation while saying the government has no intention of curtailing the fundamental rights of citizens.

“As Indonesian citizens, LGBTQ people are entitled to education, employment, healthcare and other public services without restrictions, segregation or discrimination,” Indonesia’s Human Rights Minister Natalius Pigai told CNA in a phone interview.

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Indonesia’s Human Rights Minister Natalius Pigai. (Photo courtesy of Human Rights Ministry)

But he added that Indonesian society is not ready to accept the LGBTQ community, even as the state remains obliged to respect, protect and fulfil every citizen’s rights to education, employment, healthcare and public services.

“The time has not yet come to formally recognise them as an official group because society is not yet ready to accept them,” he said.

HOW THE CLAUSE CAME TO PUBLIC ATTENTION

While it remains unclear what first drew widespread attention to the provision, it resurfaced amid a series of developments involving LGBTQ issues. One was a Pride Month-themed social media post in mid-June by Suara Mahasiswa, a student publication at the University of Indonesia.

The post had led to a heated online debate, with critics arguing it was inconsistent with Indonesia’s religious and social norms. They questioned why it invoked the Pancasila national ideology to defend the LGBTQ community. Pancasila comprises five principles: Belief in one God, civilised humanity, national unity, democracy and social justice.

The backlash prompted the university to publicly distance itself from the post and launch an internal review.

Then in late June, the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) said it was preparing an academic paper and a draft bill to criminalise LGBTQ-related conduct for Parliament’s National Legislation Programme.

MUI deputy chairman Muhammad Cholil Nafis argued that moral appeals alone were no longer sufficient to curb what he described as the growing activities and campaign surrounding LGBTQ culture.

“If there are no legal penalties at all, it eventually becomes normal. We should not normalise it. Punishment helps people understand that it is not normal,” he said.

“Deviant activities, such as same-sex parties, are now increasingly being displayed openly in public without any sense of shame,” he added.

Scrutiny then shifted to the new regulation that had previously gone largely unnoticed.

The belated attention came as no surprise to Agus Wahyudi, head of the Inter-Religious Studies Programme at Gadjah Mada University (UGM) in Yogyakarta.

Documents such as the General National Defence Policy typically circulate within government bureaucracy and rarely become the subject of public debate, he said.

But a provision can take on political significance when a series of events – in this case, the Pride Month-themed social media post and the MUI’s planned bill – draws the public’s notice, said Agus.

“What changed was not necessarily the policy itself, but the public attention it attracted,” Agus said.

WHY WAS IT PLACED IN A NATIONAL DEFENCE DOCUMENT?

Asked whether the presidential regulation represented the first national policy to explicitly mention LGBTQ, human rights lawyer Asfinawati said Indonesia’s 2008 Pornography Law referred to “lesbian” and “homosexual” acts in its explanatory notes to a provision banning the production, distribution and sale of pornographic material.

It defined what the law described as “deviant sexual intercourse” for the purposes of pornography offences, rather than creating a standalone offence based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

Presidential Regulation No. 111/2025 goes further by classifying the “spread of LGBTQ culture” itself as a non-military threat, argued Asfinawati, the former chair of the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation.

“This regulation no longer links it to sexual conduct. Simply having a particular sexual orientation or gender identity is placed within a threat framework,” she said.

Experts have questioned whether a national defence framework was an appropriate instrument for addressing issues such as sexual orientation and gender identity.

In principle, national defence should focus on military threats, said Tangguh Chairil, a lecturer in security studies at the Department of International Relations at Binus University, Jakarta.

Indonesia, however, classifies threats into three categories: Military, non-military and hybrid. As a result, issues beyond the traditional defence sphere are increasingly viewed as national security issues.

“Because the definition is so broad, almost anything can be treated as a national security threat,” Tangguh told CNA.

Classifying LGBTQ culture as a non-military threat under a defence framework means the issue may be treated as a security concern requiring state attention and resources, he added.

“Issues that have been successfully securitised tend to receive greater attention than others,” he said.

Yusril Ihza Mahendra, Coordinating Minister for Legal Affairs, Human Rights, Immigration, and Corrections, told news outlet Tempo on Jul 9 that “non-military threat” was used to categorise risks against national resilience.

In the socio-cultural context, “resilience” refers to values, ethics, character of the younger generation, families, digital space, and social cohesion, he said.

“What the government perceives as a threat is the campaign, propaganda, and dissemination of LGBT behaviour aimed at altering the values that align with the nation’s culture and morality,” he added.

Indonesia’s Chief Minister for Law and Human Rights, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, speaks as Australia’s Minister for Home Affairs, Tony Burke, listens during a press conference following their meeting in Jakarta, Indonesia, December 3, 2024. (REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan)

Asfinawati said the regulation cannot serve as the legal basis for introducing new criminal provisions or for regional governments to impose criminal sanctions unless authorised by law.

Under Indonesian law, a person’s sexual orientation as well as consensual same-sex relations between adults are not, by themselves, criminal offences. The exception is Aceh province, which implements Islamic crimina

Internet Security

Nigeria: UNICEF chief urges child protection amid security, humanitarian crises

Violence in Nigeria The head of the U.N. children’s agency visited northwestern Nigeria on Friday as conflict, poverty and rising food insecurity leave millions of children in the region in need of aid. Catherine Russell, executive director of UNICEF, toured the state of Sokoto, where the agency is seeking to draw attention to worsening humanitarian

Published 1 week ago in 25th July 2026

Nigeria: UNICEF chief urges child protection amid security, humanitarian crises

Violence in Nigeria

The head of the U.N. children’s agency visited northwestern Nigeria on Friday as conflict, poverty and rising food insecurity leave millions of children in the region in need of aid.

Catherine Russell, executive director of UNICEF, toured the state of Sokoto, where the agency is seeking to draw attention to worsening humanitarian challenges facing children.

She met with state officials and visited UNICEF-supported programs aimed at improving the health of both mothers and children and protecting vulnerable youngsters.

“We have to make sure that children are protected in these conflicts,” she said.

“That their healthcare is protected, that their food is protected, that their education is protected. Children can’t waste years of their life because conflicts are going on.”

Northern Nigeria is already gripped by an intensifying security crisis that has killed thousands.

The ongoing Middle East conflict has deepened food insecurity for millions living in poverty, making children in poor households more vulnerable.

According to UNICEF between 18.3 million and 23.4 million more children in monetarily poor households worldwide have fallen into deeper poverty, including 6.5 million to 8.8 million in Africa.

Nigeria has one of the world’s largest populations of impoverished children, and humanitarian organizations warn that those in the country’s conflict-torn north remain among the most vulnerable.

For some, UNICEF-supported programs have made a tangible difference.

Zainab Bello, 19, said she had been out of school before joining the agency’s “Digital Village” program.

“I was taught digital literacy… how to use a digital tool,” she said.

“I also learned how I can promote my vocational skills on various social media platforms.”