Weibo Shares Collapse After Regulator Gives Social Media Giant’s Operator a Fine

China’s Weibo saw its shares dropping this week after the Cyberspace Administration of China announced on its official WeChat account that it has fined the company’s operator BJ Weimeng Innovation and Technology Company.

The fine was given over some accounts and content violating relevant laws and regulations.

The Chinese social networking giant Weibo tumbled more than 9% on the Hong Kong exchange after its operator was fined three million yuan ($471,151) by regulators.

Weibo has faced 44 fines totaling 14.3 million yuan, or $2.24 million, in the period from January to November this year, according to the regulator.

Shares of Weibo have lost over 10% since its secondary listing in Hong Kong last week. The company’s NASDAQ-listed shares also dropped 6% overnight and are down 26% YTD.

Weibo responded to the fine and said that it will put in place the necessary rectification, exercise its responsibility, and keep improving its governance, according to a CNBC translation.

Weibo “sincerely accepts” the regulator’s criticism, will “earnestly fulfil” the requirements and improve its abilities to regulate its ecosystem, the company said in a statement published on its official Weibo account.

The company added that it would focus on cleaning up “soft pornography”, using both human and artificial intelligence censors, and also crack down on the use of “malicious marketing” as a means of boosting traffic, a practice that earlier had been targeted by the CAC.

The company was fined for “repeatedly allowing “information forbidden by law and regulations.”

It was only a few weeks ago that a Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai first posted her sexual assault allegations against China’s former vice-premier Zhang Gaoli on the platform. Her post only lasted minutes before it was taken down.

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