Internet users are reportedly required to agree to a list of measures, including a vow to "uphold" China's one-party dominated government.
China boasts an online population of around 632 million. Many of them use services like the messaging app WeChat, where they can share text, photos, video and voice messages on mobile devices.
But the latest measures by the Chinese government appear to be directly aimed at WeChat and foreign-owned messaging apps that have been blocked for several weeks.
According to reports, China had blocked access to two services owned by South Korean firms - Line and KakaoTalk - because they were used to exchange terrorism-related information.
The Chinese government hasn't commented any further.
UTS media studies Professor Wanning Sun says recent deadly attacks blamed on China's Uighur minority top a long list of issues the Chinese government is struggling to contain.
"It's not just about terrorist attacks, terrorist attacks are one what they call "emergency situations" that China is increasingly trying to deal with," she said.
"Labour issues, property issues and environmental issues that are a risk to ordinary people at probation levels is becoming a regular source of instability if you like."
'Upholding the socialist system'
China's online community has been using messaging apps to push the boundaries of the ruling Communist party's restrictions on free speech.
Internet companies are required to ensure that users of online messaging services register with their real names.
Users are also required to agree to what the government calls "seven bottom lines", including a vow to "uphold the socialist system".
China says only established media companies are allowed to release political and social news and accounts that have not been approved by the service providers are forbidden to publish or reprint political news.
Social media analyst William Chen said the move is likely to hit the number of journalists and pundits who use the apps to distribute independent commentary.
But a similar situation emerged last year during a crackdown on China's version of Twitter, Sina Weibo.
"I think the Chinese internet users are used to things like this," he said.
"This is probably going to slow down the growth on WeChat. After the crackdown on Weibo last year there was a big exodus of Weibo users to WeChat, and that's accounted for the huge growth of WeChat over the last 12 months or so. What this is going to do within China is probably slow down the growth and open room for new innovative technologies and new platforms.
"It's always been a cat and mouse game, Chinese users always come up with new ways."
WeChat in Australia
Mr Chen says WeChat is popular among Australia's Chinese community.
Its private messaging function allows users to stay in touch with friends and family, although setting up a public account overseas is slightly more complicated.
"There's almost two different WeChat platforms," he said.
"The WeChat platform in China, and the more global WeChat platform. For an Australian business to have a WeChat account, they have to use an Australian company registration to register their account. That would be marked as an overseas account. People in China can't actually follow those overseas accounts."
But Professor Sun says so far she hasn't noticed any disturbance to her WeChat account.
"This morning I spent half an hour with a friend in China," she said.
"So that's not a problem. As long as you don't actually talk about political issues.
"Technically we don't know how easy it is to monitor this kind of thing. I think there are key words that can alert the authorities, but I think it's quite difficult to police that."
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