File photo: VCG

Amid the recent campaign to crack down on the chaotic fan industry in China, Chinese social media platforms should not ignore the promotional accounts that often post charged topics or spread rumors on social media to stir up conflicts among some stars' fan clubs with an eye to turning a profit.

Although China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo on Saturday removed its "star power list" - a chart that fans would spend a large amount of time, money and energy to keep their idols at its top - that only solves a part of the problem.

In addition, social media platforms should also ban those promotional accounts that often purposely try to turn various idol fans againstone another.

These promotional accounts, which are related to one or more stars, often post controversial comments or rumors related to well-known stars to stir up fights between fans of different celebrities. Some even change their display names so that they contain offensive comments against certain stars in the hopes of catching the attention of that star's defenders, who will then post comments under that account. The more intense the controversy, the more views these accounts get, which, of coursemeans more opportunities for monetization. 

In the past, in the case of display names, platforms would only ask them to change the offensive content without permanently suspending the accounts, thus giving these accounts a second chance to live again. 

While these accounts have indeed increased the number of posts and views on social media platforms to their own benefit, they have distorted the cyber environment, a conduct that  is  not acceptable. Thus, the platforms should completely remove those immoral accounts for a better and healthy cyber environment.

Global Times