How Can the Universal Disclosure of Provincial-level IP Geolocation Change the Landscape of Social Media Analysis

Abstract

Since April 2022, the Chinese government has mandated the disclosure of domestic users' provincial- level geolocation information on social media platforms in China. This has led to unprecedented, universal accessibility to geolocation information that is automatically tagged to various forms of online content, including short video posts, user comments, and any other forms of user-generated online content. In this paper, we present suggestions and examples that illustrate how this newly available information can potentially change the landscape of social media analysis. First, the universal geolocation disclosure substantially lowers the small sample size and sample selection issues due to voluntary geolocation tagging, thereby ensuring a more comprehensive and general- izable approach to social media analysis. Second, this geolocation data advances the exploration of the relationships between online content and regional characteristics. Researchers can now uncover comparable and less biased regional variations re ected by online content, shedding light on the regional-specific socio-cultural dynamics. This enhanced accuracy of social media analysis provides a new avenue for regional and comparative studies. We also discuss some limitations.

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