In the lead up to next month's Party Congress, China has issued a series of new rules aimed at tightening control over group chats and public accounts on China-based social media and messaging platforms.
The two new sets of regulations were issued by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) last week and are set to go into effect on October 8, 2017, just before the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party convenes in Beijing. The rules apply to messaging apps such as Tencent's WeChat and QQ, Alibaba's Alipay Chat, Baidu's Tieba, Sina's Weibo and other social media platforms.
READ MORE: China Issues Strict New Rules for Group Chats
To remind people of the new laws, a text message was sent to all Shanghai residents earlier today via SMS.
Rough translation of the announcement below:
Network safety is for the people, and network safety depends on the people. Together let's all study "The Network Safety Law" to strengthen awareness of network safety together, and effectively raise network safety technical skills. -- The Shanghai Municipal Committee for Network Information.
So why the new rules, anyway? According to China Daily, they're intended to "better develop China’s online environment, protect the legal rights of Chinese netizens and online organizations, and safeguard national security and the public interest."
Among some of the strict new rules for online platforms include a new regulation suggesting the implementation of credit rating systems and blacklists, and making admins take full responsibility for their group chats.
Along with these new regulations, China's national Public Security Bureau (PSB) also issued an urgent warning on September 11 listing taboo topics that users will be banned from discussing in group chats, including politically sensitive content, rumors, pornography and more. Read the full list of taboo topics here.
READ MORE: China Just Banned These 9 Topics from Group Chats
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