China Tightens Control of Chat Groups

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China has issued new rules on instant messaging chat groups, regulating online discussions. 

Administrators of online groups in China should manage their groups properly, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said on Thursday.

According to the new regulation, group administrators should regulate the conduct of their group members and the information posted in groups in accordance with the law, user agreements and conventions.

Providers of information services should fulfill their responsibility to manage online information, and should have professional and technical capability conforming to the scale of their services, the regulations read.

Service providers should verify the real identities of group members, and set up a credibility rating system, while taking measures to protect users' personal information.

The rules, which take effect on October 8, will cover platforms in China, such as Tencent's WeChat and QQ, Sina Weibo, Baidu's Tieba and Alibaba's Alipay chat.  They were asked to step up monitoring of and management on the content released.

The regulations also required companies to establish a credit system, and to provide group chat services to users in accordance to their credit rating, the administration said.

It said chat group participants who broke the rules would have their credit scores lowered, have their rights to manage group chats suspended or revoked and should be reported to the relevant government department.

The administration also said the owner of the chat group should bear responsibility for the management of the group. “Whoever owns the group should be responsible, and whoever manages the group should be responsible,” it said.

The new rules are the latest requirement for China’s internet giants, who have already been subject to investigations from the administration into their top social media sites for failing to comply with cyber laws.

The administration has already taken down popular celebrity gossip social media accounts and extended restrictions on what news can be produced and distributed by online platforms, and has embarked on a campaign to remove virtual private network apps, which allow users to access websites blocked by the authorities.

Source: cgtn, scmp

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