On December 19, 2022, I got a call from Alibaba Cloud’s ICP filing review telling me that the forum I ran on a subdomain didn’t comply with laws and regulations, and required me to either close it for rectification or cancel my filing with them.
I was running the open source Discuz forum, tormented by spam every day — let a gambling ad slip through and Alibaba Cloud would block me and send a warning, so maintaining it was exhausting. This filing review was the last straw that made me decide to shut it down. My site is closed.
By national law, forum systems require prior approval. Officially they’re called “internet electronic bulletin services”: beyond the ordinary ICP filing you must file a separate special application, and only companies can apply — individuals aren’t eligible.
On top of that, a forum needs clearly designated moderators and 24-hour human content review. Basically, you have to be able to control content in real time.
The forum wasn’t my main site, so this time I chose to close it. If one day even blogs aren’t allowed, I’d have to move overseas. Sigh.
The forum services come down today. Farewell, forum friends.