Effect of Geolocation Disclosure on Chinese Social Media

The disclosure of geolocation information became mandatory on Chinese social media platforms since 2022. All the social media sites now display the IP (Internet Protocol) addresses of the authors and each post at the level of province/state. This paper investigates the impact of this policy on user behaviour within the Chinese online video-sharing platform Bilibili. By employing a natural pre-experimental design, we analyse user comments before and after the policy’s implementation. Our findings reveal a significant increase in user engagement related to location-specific discussions. This study contributes to the understanding of how regulatory changes can influence online interactions, providing valuable insights for researchers and policy makers.