{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,10]],"date-time":"2026-01-10T13:58:26Z","timestamp":1768053506195,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":53,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,9]],"date-time":"2026-01-09T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1767916800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Young Scholars Project of Philosophy and Social Sciences Research, Department of Education of Hubei Province","award":["24Q095"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["24Q095"]}]},{"name":"Young Scholars Project of Philosophy and Social Sciences Research, Department of Education of Hubei Province","award":["24Q150"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["24Q150"]}]},{"name":"Key Educational Research Project of Hubei Higher Education Association","award":["2025ZX098"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2025ZX098"]}]},{"name":"Key Teaching Research Project of Hubei University of Technology","award":["2024XZ19"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2024XZ19"]}]},{"name":"Doctoral Research Startup Fund Project of Hubei University of Technology","award":["XJ2024005401"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["XJ2024005401"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Information"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Social media serves as a vital channel for emotional expression, yet mandatory IP location disclosure raises concerns about how reducing anonymity affects users\u2019 shared emotions, particularly in privacy-sensitive contexts such as mental health discussions. In 2022, all Chinese social media platforms implemented this disclosure feature. This study examines the emotional and behavioral consequences of Sina Weibo\u2019s mandatory IP location disclosure policy, which took effect on 28 April 2022. We collected 193,761 Weibo posts published under the topic of depression from 1 March to 30 June 2022, and applied sentiment analysis combined with regression discontinuity in time (RDiT) to estimate causal effects around the policy threshold. Results indicate that the policy significantly intensified negative emotional expression: the estimated discontinuity is \u22121.3506 (p &lt; 0.01), meaning posts became more negative immediately after implementation. In contrast, the effect on positive sentiment was comparatively weak and mostly statistically insignificant. Behavioral changes were also observed: both average daily posting volume and average text length are declined. These findings demonstrate that mandatory disclosure can suppress self-disclosure and amplify negative emotional tone in privacy-sensitive settings, offering practical guidance for users, platform designers, and policymakers on implementing transparency features responsibly.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/info17010063","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,9]],"date-time":"2026-01-09T12:52:17Z","timestamp":1767963137000},"page":"63","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Unveiling the Impact of Mandatory IP Location Disclosure on Social Media Users\u2019 Shared Emotions: A Regression Discontinuity Analysis Based on Weibo Data"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"17","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9115-4440","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Heng","family":"Zhang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Economics and Management, Hubei University of Technology, Wuhan 430068, China"},{"name":"Hubei Digital Industrial Economy Development Research Center, Wuhan 430068, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7679-0489","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Aiping","family":"Gao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Normal School of Vocational Techniques, Hubei University of Technology, Wuhan 430068, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Zhuyu","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Information Management, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6428-7598","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Xinyuan","family":"Lu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Information Management, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,9]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"635","DOI":"10.1111\/jcom.12106","article-title":"Self-Disclosure in Social Media: Extending the Functional Approach to Disclosure Motivations and Characteristics on Social Network Sites","volume":"64","author":"Bazarova","year":"2014","journal-title":"J. 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