Wechat admins now take responsibility for group chats by law

New regulations in China will make chat group administrators responsible — and even criminally liable — for messages containing politically sensitive material, rumors and violent or pornographic content.

The regulations also demand that all chat room users in mainland China verify their real identity.

According to a new regulation on online groups released by the CAC on Thursday, group administrators should regulate the conduct of their group members and the information posted in groups in accordance with the law, user agreements and conventions.

Providers of information services should fulfill their responsibility to manage online information, and should have professional and technical capability conforming to the scale of their services, the regulations read.

Service providers should verify the real identities of group members, and set up a credibility rating system, while taking measures to protect users' personal information.

While online groups have made people's work and lives easier, some service providers and administrators have failed to fulfill their duties, allowing obscenity, violence, fraud, etc. to spread, the CAC said.

Last week, a man from east China's Anhui Province was given a 5-day administrative detention for using abusive language toward the local police in a group on WeChat, China's most popular instant messaging app.

Regulation on the Management of Internet Chat Group Service: Prohibited Content 

Effective 8 October, the following types of content will be prohibited in chat groups on China-based messaging platforms:

1. Sensitive political content
2. Rumors
3. Internal documents [of the Chinese Communist Party and government units] 4. Content that is vulgar, pornographic, violent or shows drug-related criminal acts
5. News from Hong Kong and Macau that has not been reported by official media outlets
6. Military information
7. State secrets
8. Videos from anonymous sources that insult or destroy police’s reputation
9. Other illegal information

Chat group administrators who fail to remove prohibited content from chats can face criminal charges or administrative detention.

 the regulations will take effect on Oct. 8.

WeChat boasts more than 800 million users, while Weibo has about 200 million active users.

source:xinhuanet