Major Social Media Response Under Covid-19 Pandemic in China

Abstract

Social media has played a key role in China, including marketing promotion, making new friends, and acquiring news. The increasing role social media plays in Chinese people’s daily life has significantly shown after the outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic. This research has studied and compared three major Chinese social media: Weibo, WeChat, and TikTok role during the covid-19 pandemic and how the users as well as the government utilized social media to share information. The study finds that social media has changed its role in making new friends to information sharing. Therefore, the user of social media and the time they have spent on social media also increase significantly. The research also finds that fake news and misinformation related to the covid-19 have been increasing and even breaking the trust between the government and the users. The research strongly recommends the government should take action in response to fake news, rumors, and the negative consequences that those pieces of news brought to people. Despite the punishment of those people who promote misleading information, the government should also work with technology companies to carefully monitor and control fake news in order to limit the sharing of panic among users. Lastly, I also recommend that future scholars and researchers study more about the violent behaviors, and misperceptions of social media bring to audiences.