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The Chinese government is cracking down on tech companies’ use of recommendation algorithms, as well as unfair pricing and discounts that target specific groups online, the Cyberspace Administration of China announced Sunday.
The campaign is designed to prevent “information cocoons” forming online, and instead force tech companies to promote “healthy content” to protect vulnerable users, like children and the elderly.
In a notice, China’s internet authority said that companies should avoid using algorithms that target content to a user’s preferences, with officials citing the risk of addiction. The move comes as the use of algorithms for e-commerce and other services has soared in China, the South China Morning Post reported.
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Beijing has been tightening its grip on the Chinese tech industry for years, both by purchasing private company shares and increasingly strict rule-making. The new mandate closely echoes guidance set in 2022, when Beijing mandated that platforms allow users to opt-out of personalized recommendations and instead promote “positive energy,” prompting companies to open up their algorithms for regulator scrutiny. In turn, the potential for Beijing to have direct influence of ByteDance’s apps’ algorithms, including that of wildly popular social media platform TikTok, has been cited as a top security concern by US lawmakers who voted to force a ban of the app unless it was sold.