Beijing environmental authorities have caved to public pressure on air pollution in a sign of the growing power of social media to influence public policy in the country.

The Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau will grant public access to air-quality readings that take into account smaller and more-dangerous pollution particles before the Spring Festival holiday begins on Jan. 23, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported Friday.

China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection had previously said such data would be released nationwide by 2016.