The National Library of China plans to archive all public Weibo posts released by the end of 2018, as part of a government initiative to preserve digital information, China News Agency reported on April 22.

By the end of last year, more than 200 billion user posts, 500 billion comments and likes, 50 billion pictures and 400 million videos had been released on the Weibo platform, data showed.

The information collected is for non-profit purposes including policy-making and academic research, the National Library of China said.

The U.S. Library of Congress started archiving public tweets in 2010, Science and Technology Daily reported. Similar projects that are completed or ongoing around the world amount to about 100, said a researcher with the National Library of China.