The Ethnic and Religious Affairs Commission of Guangdong Province has offered an exam to further the education of those in charge of monitoring online religious activity to crack down on the spreading of religious information online. The authority has commented that the provided list of those who cleared the exam will be the only eligible auditors of the Internet Religious Information Service.
The first group of testers took the exam in Guangdong Province on 8 June. A total of 127 people passed the test and will go on to work for the local government monitoring religious activity.
The implementation of the ban on unauthorized online religious activity was instated by the Chinese government in March. This ban increased scrutiny of online religious activity at a time when many Chinese churches stream their church services due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This latest accreditation of over one hundred online religious activity “auditors” will only continue the crackdown on online religious content and put more Chinese Christians in danger.