Three years after Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) instructed companies to inspect user comments on news content, according to an article by SCMP, the CAC has proposed a regulation requiring social media services and video platforms to hire content moderators to review their users' comments before getting to the public.
In 2017, the Chinese government implemented a stern policy mandating Weibo and Weixin (the mainland's version of WeChat) users to use relevant identification documents like their national ID and phone number to certify their accounts under the country's real-name registration system.
Using human commenters and bots in the said registration system was also prohibited as China's way of preventing the spread of information that could mislead public opinion and disturb social order.
Earlier in 2022, social services like Weibo, Quora, Zhihu, and Douyin, the country's version of Tiktok, enabled a feature that displays user locations based on internet protocol (IP) addresses. It is a regulation that seeks to control the spread of rumors by netizens pretending to be locals.
This week, the CAC asked app providers and distributors to foster "core socialist values" and cling to the country's proper direction of politics, public opinions, and values.
The censorship activities mentioned above and the newly drafted rule are part of China's increasingly strict approach to censoring its online environment.
In the previous regulation, relevant authorities were mandated to act on service providers violating the rules under relevant laws and regulations.
Currently, the newly drafted regulation specifies not only the use of real identities before leaving comments as it also sets specific sanctions for violators. According to the provision, individuals who breach the rule will be warned, blocked from commenting, asked to delete their comments, or have their accounts suspended or deactivated.
The said rule that outlaws bots or human commenters remain similar to the previous rules, whereas the regulation which says users should be blacklisted for serious infringements and prohibited from accessing the service or opening new accounts is under the new provisions.
This revised provision by the CAC seeks to promote the "healthy development" of its industry, mandating app developers not to put national security and public interest in danger when processing data.
Following the announcement of the said rule provision, the Chinese authorities are soliciting the public's feedback on the proposal until July 1.
On the public's earliest feedback, several Chinese netizens reacted negatively to the newly drafted provision. Some users believe that the real-name registration is enough. Thus, their freedom of speech should not be overly limited. They think that with the proposed amendment of the stipulation, people will be deprived of channels to speak up.
The said new rule is a modified version of the Provisions on the Administration of Mobile Internet Applications Information Services and will be carried out this Aug. 1.
With China's heightened cybersecurity and censorship practices, the country was left with 2.31 million available apps in April 2020, half of the 4.49 million apps it had back in 2018. Despite this, they are still left with 5 million enthusiastic app developers whom Apple's CEO Tim Crook praised during the Worldwide Developers Conference.
