On 12 June 2024, the Cyberspace Administration of China, in conjunction with the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and the National Radio and Television Administration, issued the “Provisions on Governance of Cyber Violence Information” (网络暴力信息治理规定, hereinafter the “Provisions”), which came into force on 1 Aug. 2024.
In recent years, cyber violence has seriously infringed upon citizens’ legitimate rights and interests, drawing considerable public attention. The Provisions aims to strengthen governance over cyber-violence information by clarifying the responsibilities of cyber information content management entities, establishing prevention and early warning mechanisms, regulating the handling of cyber-violence information and accounts, protecting users’ rights and interests, enhancing supervision and administration work, and defining legal responsibilities.
The highlights of the Provisions are as follows.
- Cyber-violence information refers to illegal and harmful content collectively published against individuals through the Internet in the form of text, images, audio, video, etc., which contains insult, slander, defamation, incitement of hatred, intimidation and coercion, invasion of privacy, and accusation, ridicule, humiliation, and discrimination affecting mental and physical health.
- Cyber information service providers who find that there is a risk of cyber violence information shall promptly respond to social concerns, guide users to interact civilly and express rationally, and promptly take dynamic verification of real identity information, pop-up prompts, violation warnings, traffic restrictions, and other measures against abnormal accounts; and where the amount of browsing, searching, commenting and tip-off of relevant information content is found to have increased significantly, it shall also be reported to the relevant departments in a timely manner.
Photo by Mark de Jong on Unsplash
Contributors: CJO Staff Contributors Team
