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Terrorism
ChinaPolitics

In Beijing, new counterterror regulations give authorities more power over tech sector

  • City authorities will inspect and strengthen risk monitoring of ‘new technologies’ and ‘new industries’, according to regulations
  • They also emphasise that internet firms must remove and keep records of terrorism-related or extremist content and report it to police

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New regulations under the anti-terrorism law take effect in Beijing in January. Photo: Shutterstock
Yuanyue Dangin Beijing

The city of Beijing has introduced new regulations under the country’s counterterrorism law that give municipal authorities more power over the technology sector.

They were published on August 15 after being passed by the municipal legislature on July 28. The regulations take effect in January.

Beijing is the latest municipal or provincial government to introduce its own regulations under the anti-terrorism law – which took effect in 2016 – but the clauses covering the tech sector have not been seen elsewhere in China so far. The national law includes a provision requiring tech companies to share access with security agencies to prevent and investigate terrorist acts.
Megvii is among the tech companies with headquarters in Beijing. Photo: Simon Song
Megvii is among the tech companies with headquarters in Beijing. Photo: Simon Song
Many tech giants have headquarters or key branches in Beijing, including internet companies ByteDance and Baidu, and artificial intelligence firm Megvii, which has been sanctioned by the US over alleged human rights abuses in the far western Xinjiang region.
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The new regulations emphasise that internet companies must immediately remove and keep records of any content deemed to be terrorism-related or extremist and report it to the police, in line with the national law.

They state that city authorities will also inspect and strengthen risk monitoring of “new technologies” and “new industries”.

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These new industries were identified as including AI, blockchain and autonomous driving in a draft of the regulations released for public comment in April, but this does not appear in the final version.

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