Freedom of official speech(4)

Popularity contest

Officials with public security departments are the most popular on Sina Weibo. Chen Shiqu, director of the Ministry of Public Security's anti-trafficking office, is most popular among all government officials. The next two are both top policemen, according to a report ranking the popularity of Sina Weibo users in 2012, issued in early December by the Public Opinion Monitoring Office of People's Daily Online.

Chen's followers now stand at over 3.2 million. Popularity is judged by several criteria, including numbers of followers, frequency and details of posts and the ability to be an opinion leader.

Weibo's ability as a problem-solving platform has also played a part in the popularity of certain accounts. The petitions office of Hainan Province, which only registered in April, has put up over 800 posts, concerning various petitions, and attracted over 130,000 followers.

Government Weibo accounts should explain clearly what they are supposed to speak about. "But it doesn't mean they can talk about everything," Lü said, explaining that they should have rules to follow, similarly to other countries that have guidelines for officials to follow when communicating online.

For example, Britain has issued a handbook since 2009, providing rules on Twitter for government departments. It is not a compulsory guide but is handy as a reference tool.

Opinion leaders are also important in a different way. What they post online should be of high value, according to Lü, and they should take care to maintain good relations with their followers so as to help government policies go down well.

Furthermore, any evaluation of Weibo's effect should be carefully weighed up and its contents should be of high priority. Similar rules are already in place for US officials, who also take active security measures into consideration.

For Wang Tao, Weibo is not the end-all of government communication and remains a simple tool.

"The most important thing is not what officials say, but what we do to improve our job efficient or make changes," he said. As a Weibo user for over two years, what has impressed him most is that people can communicate freely online.