Summary of Key Points
Recently, mainstream internet platforms such as REDnote, TikTok, and Xueqiu have intensively cracked down on unqualified financial accounts and illegal content, focusing on behaviors that illegally induce cross-border investment, provide false stock recommendations, and resell research reports. This is in response to the surge in residents' demand for investment and financial management services, but unqualified entities often take advantage of the situation to mislead investors and manipulate the market. Regulatory authorities have also stepped up their efforts, issuing regulations such as the "Financial Products Online Marketing Management Measures" to hold platforms and financial institutions more accountable. Experts suggest addressing these issues by implementing cross-platform blacklists and linking user behavior with financial transactions, in order to shift the financial content ecosystem from being driven by traffic to being guided by compliance and professionalism.
I. Platforms Taking Joint Action: What Behaviors Are Being Targeted?
The various platforms have specifically targeted three types of illegal activities in the financial sector:
1. Unqualified Financial Sales: For example, REDnote removed 31,000 accounts that sold financial management courses or recommended stocks without the necessary qualifications; TikTok's guidelines explicitly prohibit non-financial entities from marketing financial products beyond their authorized scope.
2. Inductive Illegal Operations: Content that encourages cross-border investment, such as posts urging users to open accounts in Hong Kong or U.S. stock markets (which are typically out of reach for ordinary investors), as well as excessive speculation and herd mentality tactics on Xueqiu (e.g., claiming "the market will definitely rise tomorrow" to encourage followers to buy).
3. Black Market Activities and False Information: This includes the resale of research reports from foreign investment banks (which are intended for internal use only) and the fabrication of false information about listed companies (such as the chip order rumors spread by Feng Pengpeng).
To illustrate, REDnote removed 539 posts that induced cross-border investment in May and froze 132 products involved in the resale of research reports; Xueqiu banned influential accounts like "Jin Ting" for market manipulation.
II. Why Are These Issues Becoming More Widespread?
On one hand, there is a significant increase in residents' interest in financial management: The search volume for "brokers" on REDnote increased by 450% in 2025, and the playback of financial content on TikTok rose by 45%. On the other hand, unqualified entities exploit these opportunities:
- Posing as Experts to Profit: Influencers like "Jin Ting" recommended stocks on Xueqiu and REDnote while selling them at a profit (a practice known as "hat-taking manipulation"), earning illegal profits of over 41.62 million yuan and being fined more than 80 million yuan.
- False Information Disrupting the Market: Feng Pengpeng was fined 200,000 yuan for spreading false rumors about a company's chip orders, despite only making a small profit. The authorities show zero tolerance for such minor violations.
The root of these problems lies in the fact that unqualified accounts use "experience sharing" as a cover, making it difficult to regulate them, and the low cost of moving between platforms (they can simply create new accounts to continue their activities).
III. Regulatory Authorities Taking Tough Action: From Fines to New Regulations
Regulators not only punish violators directly but also establish rules to prevent such behavior from occurring in the first place:
- Direct Penalties: In addition to "Jin Ting" and Feng Pengpeng, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) fined Hu Bo 800,000 yuan and banned him from the market for three years; the Beijing Internet Information Office removed 155,000 pieces of illegal content and 39,000 accounts.
- **Introduction of the "Financial Products Online Marketing Management Measures": This regulation was jointly issued by eight departments, clarifying who is authorized to sell financial products—only financial institutions' official accounts are allowed to do so, and marketing personnel must be authorized employees (e.g., bank financial managers). This means that individual influencers will no longer be able to recommend funds or stocks at will.
- Enhanced Platform Responsibility: Platforms are required to review content and disclose information about the financial institutions they partner with, allowing users to verify whether an account is truly qualified.
IV. Expert Recommendations: How to Solve These Issues?
Professor Tian Lihui from Nankai University proposed two key solutions:
1. Cross-Platform Blacklists: If an account is banned on one platform (e.g., Xueqiu), it should also be blocked on others (e.g., TikTok) to prevent the same person from operating under a different name.
2. Linking Behavior to Financial Transactions: Social media accounts and promotional language should be linked to actual financial transactions. For example, if someone promotes buying a certain stock, regulators can check if they have made any reverse transactions on their own accounts, shifting the focus from regulating content to monitoring the entire financial chain.
Conclusion
This joint effort by platforms and regulatory authorities aims to filter out fraudulent and unqualified financial information, allowing only professional content to remain. For investors, it is important to verify the qualifications of those providing financial advice (avoid being deceived by promises of free stock recommendations or guaranteed profits). For platforms and institutions, compliance is essential; even high traffic levels cannot justify breaking regulatory rules.