Officials are concerned about the company’s influence on public opinion in the country, according to The Wall Street Journal.
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According to The Wall Street Journal, Chinese authorities have asked Jack Ma’s company Alibabab to divest its media assets.
Officials are reportedly concerned about the influence of the ecommerce company on public opinion in the country.
This situation came about earlier this year after a review of a list of media assets owned by the firm. Officials were dismayed at the outlook and asked Alibaba “to come up with a plan to substantially reduce its participation in the media.”
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Among the media in which Jack Ma’s company has assets are the Weibo platform, which is similar to Twitter, and the South China Morning Post, an English-language newspaper that is distributed in Hong Kong.
Such influence is apparently seen as posing serious challenges to the Chinese Communist Party and its own powerful propaganda apparatus, Wall Street Journal sources explained, according to Reuters.