China has moved to curb the influence of its tech giants in shaping online views via algorithms, with Communist Party bosses saying they must resolve “algorithm issues” by mid-February.
Operators of online platforms, such as Tencent, Alibaba Group, Meituan, JD.com and Bytedance’s Douyin, face a three-month deadline to address soaring use of algorithms – the technology developed for recommendations that is utilized by apps and websites for e-commerce and gig-work distribution.
The campaign – launched on Sunday (November 24) and running until February 14 – was announced in a notice from the Communist Party’s commission for cyberspace affairs, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other departments.
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The notice said system providers should avoid recommendation algorithms that create “echo chambers” and induce addiction, or allow manipulation of trending items, or exploit gig workers’ rights, according to a report by the South China Morning Post.
“They should also crack down on unfair pricing and discounts targeting different demographics, ensure ‘healthy content’ for elderly and children, and impose a robust ‘algorithm review mechanism and data security management system’,” the report said.
Tech firms were told to conduct “in-depth self-examination and rectification” to improve the security of their algorithms by year’s end, so that government IT units can review results of the campaign in January and rectify efforts by firms whose efforts have not met official standards.
National and local officials will “analyse difficulties and issues and develop pragmatic measures for a certain period ahead”, the notice said.
Officials launched the crackdown because China’s digital economy has boomed over the past decade and spurred increasing use of algorithms on social media, and e-commerce sites for work distribution among delivery drivers.
‘Concern over social order’
The country’s internet watchdog, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), released a wide-ranging regulatory framework for recommendation algorithms in March 2022, in a bid to curb misuse in areas such as gaming or “activities that might endanger national security or disrupt social order,” the SCMP said.
“Tech companies were told to ‘promote positive energy’ and allow users to decline personalised recommendations offered by their platforms,” the report said.
That message was repeated on the latest notice, with a warning that gig workers used by service platforms should not be encouraged to break traffic rules to meet deadlines set by website algorithms.
But officials are also concerned about online content that could shape public opinion or “social mobilization.”
China has seen a wave of violent incidents recently that have left dozens dead and spurred speculation on whether some citizens making be taking “revenge on society.”
Millions were shocked by news two weeks ago when a man rammed his car into a crowd of people exercising in a sports stadium in the southern city of Zhuhai, killing 35 people and injuring dozens more.
The incident was the deadliest known attack on members of the public in a decade, but it was just one of a series of “sudden episodes of violence in recent months targeting random members of the public – including school children,” according to a report by CNN.
Some have suggested the incidents may have stemmed from the country’s economic slowdown, but it is not yet known if the latest regulatory crackdown is linked to those events.
- Jim Pollard
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