Sina Weibo, China's Twitter-like social media. Photo: IC

 The National Library of China said it will archive all 200 billion microblogs that had been posted on Sina Weibo, China's Twitter-like social media as of December 2018.

The decision to preserve all public microblogs is part of a project to store all national internet information that was launched by the National Library of China on Friday.

Rao Quan, curator of the national library, said that the project aims at preserving the national memory and digital heritage, as well as recording China's social development.

The move has sparked heated discussions among Chinese netizens. Some are proud that their words, photos and videos will be part of the historical record. "My deep love for my idol will be kept in history," one of them said.

"To my offspring: Do not research these historical documents as you'll never be able to read them all," another netizen wrote.

However, some Net users are worried that later generations will not understand the humor and special words used on social media today. "Will I need to explain every joke to my offspring?" a net user asked.

These archived microblogs are for non-commercial purposes only such as policy making and academic research, the library said.

Twitter donated data of tweets to the US' Library of Congress in 2010. There are more than 100 projects aimed at preserving internet information around the world.

Guancha.cn