As pioneering Chinese web forum returns, authorities warn free speech has limits

Chinese authorities have praised the return of Tianya – which was one of the country’s most popular internet forums in the pre-algorithm, pre-short-video era – while cautioning that freedom of speech must be balanced with responsibility.The pioneering web portal was launched by Tianya Community Network Technology Co. in 1999, when the internet was in its infancy in China, but suddenly closed in April 2023 due to financial problems. On Sunday, the company announced that the forum would come back online the following day.“Tianya’s return is by no means a simple revival but an evolution oriented towards the new era. In this era dominated by algorithms and fragmented information, echo chambers narrow people’s perspectives, and hurried fast-food content leaves no space for the soul to rest,” the company’s statement said, adding that it aimed to create an “open, diverse, inclusive and deep original content platform”.