Finally, on Friday Bilibili said it is “in deep self-review and reflection” after a meeting with the government. It pledged that it would crank up its self-checking capacity and recruit a discipline committee -- totalling 36,000 members.

Long story short: Bilibili has come to suffer the same fate as many other mainstream video sites in China. And that fate is being invited to a talk with the government… where they demand a clean-up.

And those are the lucky ones. Many don’t even make it to “a talk with the government”. In the last three years, China has already shut down more than 13,000 websites.

Bilibili’s formula for success is to focus on serving fans of the ACG (anime, comics, games) world. While fans initially tuned in to consume ACG content, later they became creators of content, making everything from memes and movie reviews to toy unboxing and all sorts of tutorials.

But while there’s plenty of harmless stuff on Bilibili, it must be said that we also found inappropriate and borderline pornographic content too.

And those borderline cases might be enough: For instance, last month we wrote about streamers who moan and lick microphones on camera while wearing revealing clothes, part of a whole ASMR subculture on Bilibili.

China’s anti-porn office cracks down on videos of women whispering into microphones

Bilibili fans quickly reacted following the government clampdown. And this Bilibili user is clearly enraged.

Others point out that there are still other under-the-radar alternatives.

“I am not worried. After all, we still got Dilidili,” an internet user wrote, referring to a new site that looks very much like Bilibili -- showing that battle between government control and free-spirited internet users won't end any time soon.

Rage comics banned in China after jokes about a communist martyr

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