Chinese news aggregator Toutiao is severing its content-sharing links with internet company Sina, as the country’s most valuable tech companies become increasingly protective over content.
The two companies have been at loggerheads for nearly a month, after Sina raised the issue of content control with Toutiao in August. Sina argued it owns the content that users create on Sina Weibo, and said Toutiao failed to obtain company permission to repost content.
Toutiao disagreed and this week notified users that it would block Sina Weibo services from its platform. Previously, users could log on to Sina Weibo through the Toutiao platform and authorise automatic republication of Weibo posts on Toutiao. The Toutiao news app also no longer hosts Weibo content.