(Photo/Weibo)

China has launched a national project to collect and preserve over 200 billion posts on Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter-like social media platform, for digital data protection and study of China’s digital society.

The National Library of China on Friday launched the project. The first base will be set up in China’s leading technology company Sina, whose news and public social media posts published on its sites and social media platforms would be collected.

Specifically, more than 2,000 posts, 50 billion photos, and 400 million videos have been published on Sina Weibo by last December. Newer posts will also be included, according to Youth.cn.

Targeted to preserve the national memory and the digital heritage of the Internet era, the project will incorporate relevant data in a timely manner. After collection and integration, analysis of information will be carried out to serve non-commercial uses, such as policy decisions and academic research.

As the first base of this project, the news and posts published on Sina’s platforms will be saved by China’s National Library after the launch of the project.

While some worry about the possibility of their personal information being exposed, many more have shared their excitement for this small but valuable contribution to the country’s digital development.

“It is definitely a priceless treasury, one which shows a picture of younger generations’ real lives,” said a user.

Many countries have also started to archive online information. Some 100 projects have been completed or are being promoted internationally, according to the Science and Technology Daily.

The launch of the project aims to focus on the long-term development of national security and social information construction and seeks to record the process of China’s civilization development, said Rao Quan, the director of China’s National Library.