China's legislation to regulate algorithms, the next step for Chinese technology giants and Internet celebrities?

Why does the Chinese government regulate the algorithm?

The key to the success of Chinese tech giants lies in a successful algorithm. Allow users to constantly linger on their own platform, there are endless posts, videos, short videos, and at the same time, there are recommendations about their own products and content. In addition, technology giants can achieve business or political goals through their own algorithms. Therefore, in the Trump era, the war with Douyin was started, requiring split sales to American companies or closure of services in the United States

In addition to the fact that tech giants can accomplish their own commercial and political purposes, the traffic and attention brought by the algorithm has made many live broadcasters and industries popular, and has also driven the traffic of countless industries and programs, such as digbao live broadcast with goods. Queen Weiya's turnover in the previous year was 31.1 billion yuan, and the number of viewers for each live broadcast was tens of millions. In addition to the red-hot effect of specific industries and celebrities, it also includes a variety of breaking news events that can quickly spread, such as the Babaoma incident and the Peng Shuai incident.

When the algorithm matures, it may even make it harder for the Chinese government to rule for its own political purposes. In the past when documents were published, the dissemination of speech and ideas could be restricted by prohibiting the publication and sale of newspapers. However, in the Internet age (web2 age), when all content cannot be banned in advance and can only be deleted afterwards, many threats to state authorities. The content of interests and the content of exposing national abuses will continue to spread rapidly. Users can continue to watch the content by taking screenshots or other ways of saving the content. The state's control of speech and thought is gradually weakening, which is why China is considered to be leading the world in formulating laws that regulate algorithms.

This regulation imposes obligations on tech giants and algorithm providers

1. The objects of this legal specification include all operators that use algorithms to provide services, including delivery app operators, social networking website operators, online search operators, job matchmaking operators, etc. As long as there are operators who use algorithms, they are all applicable. law.
2. The point of this law is that operators who use algorithmic algorithms must confirm that the information, content or any decision they provide to users must comply with the policy guidelines of the state (Communist Party), and operators who use algorithmic algorithms have the following obligations

• Algorithms must not be allowed to harm the interests that the government considers important, disrupt the economic order and social order ... We should take precautions and resist the spread of bad news. (Article 6)
• It is not allowed to set up algorithms that violate the law or violate ethics , such as indulging users, excessive consumption, etc. (Article 8)
• When building a user's feature database, you cannot use bad information as a feature and push it (Article 10)
• Lists, homepages, etc. must be manually intervened to convey information that conforms to mainstream values (Article 11)
• Algorithms may not be used to create unfair competition (Article 15)

In short, tech giants and industry players need to convey content that is in line with the party's values (or mainstream values) and must not disrupt social order.

This regulation is actually quite difficult to understand the scope of law enforcement. For example, whether the incident of women being raised as slaves in China is disturbing social order and violating mainstream values; Whether the broadcast is considered bad news.

In addition, users should not be allowed to indulge and over-consume, which may lead to considerable ambiguity in the implementation of Chinese social media operators, because the algorithm of social media is actually to attract users' attention and make them addicted to Among them, the development of endless dynamic messages, red dot notifications, advertisements in the middle of posts to encourage consumption, popular products to make it easier for everyone to see and buy, etc.

It is also worth affirming that this legal norm cannot use algorithms to cause unfair competition, such as prohibiting the exclusion of competitors' content from the eyes of users through algorithms.

This regulation grants users the rights

1. The right to know the algorithm (the principle and purpose of the algorithm). (Article 16)
2. Operators using algorithms should provide options for turning off algorithm services or excluding the feature database; at the same time, users can select or delete personal features; if the algorithm has a significant impact on user rights, it must be explained. (Article 17)
3. For minors, it is necessary to have information that is in line with the physical and mental health of minors; avoid imitating unsafe or violating social order and good customs (Article 18) Douyin Terms
4. Provides work scheduling services and complies with labor regulations in algorithm settings. (Article 21)
5. Users have the right to appeal, complain and know the results of the processing procedures (Article 22)
6. Regarding the user's rights, there is a considerable reference to the protection of the user's rights. In particular, algorithm companies will build feature stores for users, that is, label users (tags include gender, sexual orientation, age, location, interests, consumption habits, viewing habits, whether there is a car, whether there is a house, whether you are married, etc. ). By labeling, you can more efficiently provide services such as advertisements, search results, and posts. However, this law requires that companies provide users with no feature database to use. In other words, in the past, the interactive operation of the feature database and the algorithm made each person search for different results and see different content. If the user can use it without the feature database, it is very likely that the same content, search results, and display screen will appear.

What happens if there is a violation?

When some laws and regulations are violated, the Chinese government can ask for improvement within a time limit. In serious cases, it can suspend the information update and impose a fine (less than 100,000 yuan). Although the punishment seems to be quite light, for China's political and business environment, the effect of the authorities' warnings and renewal of deadlines has often outweighed the punishment.

summary

In the future, how to implement this law and how to enforce it may have a clear direction in the next year. However, for network operators who use algorithms, they will need to look at this law very carefully, and revise their algorithm logic, feature database, information prevention methods, and logic. Although this law is a statute with the characteristics of the party, there is still content that deserves recognition that users have the right to refuse the algorithm and request that it can be used without a characteristic database.

It is worth watching what the future results of this law will bring.