China has introduced a new measure to combat misinformation, requiring influencers sharing information on sensitive topics to hold a degree in that area.
The rule, which came into effect on 25 October under the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), is reportedly aimed at reducing online misinformation and protecting social media users from potentially harmful advice or guidance.
Influencers discussing subjects such as medicine, law, education, or finance must provide proof of their expertise, whether through a professional licence or degree. Platforms including Douyin (China's version of TikTok), Bilibili, and Weibo are tasked with verifying these credentials.
The CAC has also banned advertising for medical products and services, such as health foods and supplements, in an effort to curb promotions disguised as educational content.
So you're saying I can't continue promoting dick pills that might cause people's organs to boil? 
well let's see: if you're a regular person working a regular job in china, you have access to their insanely cheap higher education. alternatively, if a regular person working a regular job in china wants to get involved with what goes on in society directly (making medical disinformation slop doesn't do that), they can join the CPC because china is an actually-functioning democracy where anyone can contribute if they're willing to put in the effort.
Also if this is only about influencers, then most of "the common man" can still talk bullshit unimpreached anyway
"But we don't get to directly vote for President"
And a lot of Western neolib "democracies" don't directly vote for our heads of state either... I mean, Amerikkka's system sucks, but so does British style parliamentarianism, and quite frankly a lot of ways we do representative democracy suck. At least Soviet style demcen admits to its issues and is upfront about how it works, when practiced correctly.
The Last few years definitely showed me how "democracy" as we practice it isn't that great, absolute "free speech" is not an ideal worth striving for, and the average burgerlander is so easily propagandized. Covid showed how these racist bigoted fucks I have to live with have no sense of community and don't care about making themselves or their families sick... great job "owning the libs" by killing your grandparents early and giving yourselves long COVID 😬
I know there's good people here too, but are they the majority? IDK
Yep. "Free speech" isn't worth much if it means any idiot can open his mouth and spout bigotry and no one's allowed to do anything about it besides try to talk over him with ideals of community and caring, and individualism held up as a core ideal of a society does nothing but destroy community.