Regulation clarifies 'We media' out-of-bounds behavior

The Cyberspace Administration of China issued a notice on Monday strengthening the regulation of "We media", personal social media accounts and other media platforms run by individuals.

The notice clarifies that the website, social media platforms and internet companies that provide platforms and services for "We media" should take the primary responsibility for the supervision and management of them, urging the former to improve their supervisory systems and institutions to normalize effective oversight of what are technically their "cyberbooth tenants".

The notice also requires local cyberspace administrative departments to fulfill their responsibilities of strengthening inspection and supervision of the websites and platforms run by companies registered in the places within their jurisdiction, ensuring that these companies can fulfill their primary responsibility with due diligence.

In particular, the notice specifies 13 key tasks to address the main complaints of false information, fake news, rumors and imparity clauses, etc. It also urges local cyberspace administrative departments to expose some typical cases to not only deter potential followers but also raise the public's awareness on how to protect their legal rights and interests in dealing with similar problems.

The Cyberspace Administration of China carried out a special campaign from September to December last year to crack down on rumors, false information and fake news on the internet. The notice is basically a summary of the measures that proved effective in that campaign in dealing with these problems.

Both the campaign and the notice are therefore welcomed by the public as they are believed to be conducive to exploring and forming an effective long-term supervision mechanism, which is meaningful for a country with more than 1 billion network users. For too long, the oversight of the sector has lagged behind the fast development of the information technologies and their applications.

On the one hand, the internet and platform companies should carefully study the content of the notice as it is very likely to serve as the foundation for future rules and laws in this regard. They should fulfill their overdue legal liabilities as the primary responsible party to guarantee rumors, false information, fake news and other forms of information and services that harm public interests can be promptly eliminated from their platforms. They will also be held accountable for allowing parties to take advantage of their websites and platforms to fabricate and spread such information for whatever purposes, as they also benefit from the traffic that is caused in the process.

On the other hand, the network users should further raise their media literacy so that they can verify the authenticity of the information that comes their way in large volumes every day. It is suggested that media literacy should be made an optional course from elementary school students to help the people to better handle the challenges associated with a digital society from a young age.