The way your Tiktok platform works may be among different algorithms to be released to Chinese authorities. This comes as Beijing toughens control of internet platforms in what officials say is to curb abuse, but which critics argue is an additional control on media freedom.
Ahead of the country’s 20th Communist Party Congress due later this year, officials in Beijing announced a massive implementation of new internet regulations, arguing they were regulating false information.
The rules, known in English as ‘Regulations on Management of Algorithm Recommendations for Internet Information Services’ require tech firms to submit codes used to influence behaviour of customers and hence determine what customers should see when they visit the platforms.
Although Beijing argues the rules apply only locally, some thirty big tech companies including ByteDance, the owners of Tiktok, have already submitted their coded strategies on attracting and retaining customers.
The firms also include e-commerce merchants Alibaba, Tencent, search engine giants Baidu and delivery service app Meituan. Microblogging sites Weibo, Kuaishow and NetEase also submitted their algorithms.
It was the first time a country had made such a demand. In China, the authority in charge is the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC). In the West, algorithms have been guarded as trade secrets.
Created in 2016 by ByteDance, Tiktok has grown to be the most downloaded social media app in the world.
In Kenya and most African countries, Tiktok videos have become popular for comedy and marketing. Now its structure will be submitted periodically to Chinese authorities for review.
In a statement, the CAC said it wants to understand how these companies influence and exploit customer behaviour and encourage internet addiction through targeted content.
The regulations say that tech firms “shall regularly examine, verify, assess, and check algorithmic mechanisms, models, data, and application outcomes, etc., and may not set up algorithmic models that violate laws and regulations or ethics and morals, such as by leading users to addiction or excessive consumption.
“Where unlawful information is discovered, transmission shall be ceased immediately, measures such as deletion adopted to handle it, information spread prevented, and relevant records preserved…
They also say that: “where harmful information is discovered, it shall be dealt with according to online information content ecology management-related regulations.”
Video apps such as Tiktok and Douyin often recommend which videos to watch based on how long you stay or engage with a particular type content, say sports, cooking or comedy.
Under the new rules, algorithm that makes a user stay on for too long will be removed as part of fighting addiction.
Angela Zhang, associate professor of law at the University of Hong Kong, told the AFP the rules require that companies ensure they will not engage in activities that may threaten national security, social stability or encourage over-indulgence.
“It requires these service providers to conduct regular self-assessment to ensure compliance and to file their record with the relevant authority,” Zhang told AFP.
Offending platforms may be warned, fined or hit with other penalties. However, the extent to which tech firms have disclosed their software to regulators remains unclear.
Zhang points out that for now, "it doesn't seem that Chinese data regulators have made explicit requirements on these tech firms to change their algorithms. Rather, the regulators are probably at the information collection stage."
Chinese social media users have routinely used platforms to criticise lengthy lockdowns, part of Chinas zero-policy on Covid-19. A recent lockdown in Sanya city of the Hainan province led to intermittent street protests by the public, demanding that they should be allowed to leave the city. But the extent to which such videos can be shared now is limited as social sites are ordered to bring them down.
