Regulating tuwei culture and migrant youth through Kuaishou's platform governance

Abstract

AbstractThis study examines the platform governance of Kuaishou, a popular short‐video and live‐streaming platform that attracts many youngsters from rural areas in China. The platform's economy encourages these migrant youth to participate as content producers, offering them hope for upward mobility. Nevertheless, their cultural practices have frequently faced criticism for being vulgar and low‐brow. This article focuses on the evolving forms of platform governance, exploring how the state and the platform collaborate to devise new strategies for regulating users' cultural practices and how migrant youth creatively respond to increasing censorship measures. Drawing on over 4 years of field observation spanning from July 2017 to February 2022, this study investigates the dynamic process of the state's alliance with the platform. This alliance encompasses a range of approaches, from direct control to co‐optation and cooperation, as both the platform and its users actively engage with the state's political agenda to avoid punitive measures. The research suggests that migrant youth's platform practices cannot be simply characterized as a subculture subordinate to state‐approved narratives. Instead, they represent a complex negotiation involving the platform, the state, and subaltern subjects.