File Photo: IC

 A new cyberspace regulation that went into effect on Sunday, prohibiting online users and platforms from publishing illegal content, fabricating and spreading rumors, is expected to further improve China's cyberspace environment, experts noted.

The regulation, released by the Cyberspace Administration of China in late 2019, aims to maintain a clean internet environment and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of citizens and relevant organizations.

It directly bans 11 kinds of improper online content, such as rumors and content that violates the Constitution, harms national security, leaks national secrets and insults heroes and harms national unity. Illegal activities including cyber violence, news fabrication and human flesh searches will also face a total ban on the internet, according to the new regulation. 

Content publishers cannot use exaggerated headlines, hype up gossip, give improper comment on disastrous incidents or incite discrimination against certain groups or places. Content published online must be verified, according to the regulation. 

The regulation came amid the nationwide battle against the novel coronavirus, during which false information related to the epidemic has been widely circulated online and some rumors have even been intentionally fabricated. The flood of online rumors poses great danger and challenges to national governance, causes panic and interferes with epidemic prevention and control work. 

The regulation narrows down the content that netizens, we-media publishers and platforms can publish on social media such as Weibo and WeChat, experts noted, and is expected to reduce the amount of illegal content and rumors circulated online that harm the public's interests and even national security. 

"The regulation aims to optimize China's cyberspace ecology by setting up rules. It regulates  the behavior of content producers, service platforms and organizations and online users," Qin An, head of the Beijing-based Institute of China Cyberspace Strategy, told the Global Times. "The internet is not a place outside the law."

The new regulation could help rectify the current cyberspace environment, as it offers a legal basis for online publishing and specifically regulates how online content should be published, a man who works in a cyberspace analysis institution in Beijing, surnamed Li, told the Global Times Sunday. 

Content that contains illegal keywords and meaning will be banned from publication or face deletion on online platforms. Accounts that publish such content may be closed, Li said, noting that content that promotes positive energy is encouraged. 

In an effort to curb the fabrication and dissemination of rumors related to the coronavirus epidemic, Beijing police have investigated and handled 27 such cases, and punished 27 offenders according to law, the Beijing municipal public security bureau said on Thursday. 

Several platforms including Baidu and Huxiu were asked to rectify the publication of improper content regarding the epidemic. One app, Pipigaoxiao, was withdrawn from the market for releasing harmful videos and spreading fear, and authorities have also examined Weibo and Tencent, according to the administration in early February.  

According to the regulation, violators may be barred from accessing internet services and the industry.


Newspaper headline: New cyberspace regulation in effect