Advertisement
Censorship in China
TechPolicy

China to limit news notifications to licensed publishers after weeks of discussion about human trafficking and Ukraine

  • A draft regulation open to public feedback this month would make service providers responsible for the content of push notifications
  • The regulation comes after news of an apparent case of human trafficking resulted in a surge of anger online in the middle of the Beijing Winter Olympics

Reading Time:2 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
0
A new draft regulation from the Cyberspace Administration of China restricts push notifications from unlicensed publishers, which includes individuals like citizen journalists, many of whom publish on social media platforms such as WeChat. Photo: Shutterstock
Ann Cao

China’s powerful internet regulator has drafted a new law to restrict push notification on topics such as sensitive news items, disasters and celebrity gossip in a new effort from Beijing to curb Big Tech’s power in shaping public discourse.

The new rules make service providers responsible for the content of their push notifications, which must “adhere to the correct directions of politics, public opinion and values” and help “develop a positive and healthy network culture”. It is another escalation from the national government to restrict online content to what the state deems “healthy”.

The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) published the draft regulation on its website on Wednesday to solicit public feedback until March 17.

Once enacted, the regulation will forbid unlicensed news sources from being included in push notifications. This includes social media posts from private institutions and individuals such as citizen journalists. It comes after weeks of negative news that captured netizens’ attention, even as censors cracked down on related topics.

Social media was especially abuzz about news of a mother found chained by the neck in Xuzhou last month, stoking anger and debate about human trafficking in China. The controversy dominated online discussions in the middle of the Winter Olympics taking place in Beijing at the time.
Over the past week, censors have also been removing some content related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Chinese short video platform Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok that is also owned by ByteDance, has been treading carefully regarding related content. The platform said on Wednesday that it had taken down 498 videos and 2,657 comments related to the armed conflict.
The draft regulation specifically limits news pop-ups to those from the “List of Sources of Internet News Information” issued by the CAC.
Advertisement