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Collin Furtado · · 1 min readChinese agencies issue guideline to limit role of algorithms of tech firms
“China’s top state propaganda organs, which decide what people can read and watch in the country, have jointly urged better “culture and art reviews” in China partly by limiting the role of algorithms in content distribution, a policy move that could translate into higher compliance costs for online content providers such as ByteDance and Tencent Holdings,” reported the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
Details:
- The policy guidelines come from China’s Central Propaganda Department of the Communist Party, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the State Administration of Radio and Television, and two state-backed bodies for authors and artists.
- These guideline are the efforts of China to rein in the role technology is playing in shaping people’s minds and mainstream views. This is as algorithms used by tech firms have become an important factor in deciding what people watch.
Dive deeper:
- This development comes after Tencent said it would curb access to minors for its Honor of Kings game after a state media article described online games as ‘spiritual opium’ and tagged the company’s flagship game in it.
- The recent media backlash comes amid heightened state-backed scrutiny of Tencent and other Chinese tech giants. (Read: How China has been clamping down on big tech empires)
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