Photo: CFP

 
Several Chinese regulatory bodies announced plans to launch a joint campaign to purify the online environment and enhance governance over key algorithm issues on major network platforms from Sunday until February 14, 2025.

The core tasks of this campaign include addressing issues such as homogeneous content push, unauthorized manipulation of rankings, the reckless pursuit of profit and the use of algorithms for differential pricing based on users' data, commonly referred to as big data-enabled price discrimination against existing customers, according to a notice issued by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) on Sunday. 

The crackdown on these issues will not only help to build a healthier, more diverse and fair online environment, but also safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, and promote the long-term sustainability of the internet services industry, observers said.

Jointly launched by the CAC, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security and the State Administration for Market Regulation, the campaign urges relevant enterprises to deeply self-examine and rectify, thereby enhancing their algorithmic security capabilities.

Among the highlights, the campaign aims to tackle "information cocoons" and addiction-related issues head-on, urging to build mechanisms to promote a more diverse range of content. The campaign specifically forbids pushing highly repetitive content that could lead to user addiction.

It prohibits compelling users to choose tags that facilitate easier access to their interested content , and logging illegal and harmful data into user profiles for targeted content. Personal information collection required to be limited to what is necessary for content delivery, according to the notice.

"There is a trend of overemphasizing customized information push on the internet, which can create an echo chamber of homogeneous information, restricting users' perspectives and thinking," said Wang Peng, an associate research fellow at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences.

By diversifying content, we can break these barriers, expand users' horizons, and promote free information flow and diverse thought exchange, Wang told the Global Times on Sunday.

In addition, the use of algorithms for differential pricing based on user data is explicitly prohibited, according to the notice. This means that factors such as user age, occupation and consumption level cannot be used by the platform to offer different prices for the same product. 

Wang emphasized that big data-enabled price discrimination against existing customers contravenes market fairness. "Stopping these unfair practices is key to building a trustworthy and fair online marketplace, which benefits the healthy growth of e-commerce," he added.

Moreover, the actions include improving the transparency of top search rankings to combat ranking manipulation, preventing the platform's reckless profit-seeking and improving algorithms to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of internet users. 

It also urges actions to establish and refine management systems and technical measures for algorithm mechanism review and data security. 

In 2021, the Chinese government introduced guiding opinions to enhance the comprehensive governance of Internet information service algorithms. This new campaign aimed to further address persistent, typical problems, particularly those related to algorithms used by major internet platforms.

The special campaign is divided into three stages. First, companies are required to self-examine and self-correct from Sunday until December 31, 2024. In January 2025, the second stage involves verifying their self-examination results. By February 14, 2025, the third stage will complete an in-depth assessment of the effectiveness of these measures.

Furthermore, a reporting and complaint channel will be in place to monitor and verify tip-offs by internet users. This will enable prompt rectification of any issues identified on websites and platforms, with feedback on the rectification results provided to the users.