The following is a translation prepared by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China of the "Notice Regarding Further Strengthening Control Over the Dissemination of Harmful Information over Mobile Communication Newtorks" issued by the Ministry of Information Industry on October 7, 2005. A summary of the notice prepared by the Commission is available here.
Communication administrations in each province, autonomous region, and municipality directly under the central government; China Mobile Communications Corporation, China Unicom Ltd., China Telecom Corporation Limited, China Network Communications Group Corporation; all related information service business operators:
With the rapid development of mobile communication services, in recent years, mobile communication networks' mobile information service businesses have received the welcome of a vast number of users because of their ease of use and fast service. Along with the rapid growth of mobile communication businesses, however, there have also been some problems. In recent times there has been reports in society of severe incidences of mobile communication networks harboring evil practices, and there has been an explosion of horoscope predictions, shady romances, video of beautiful women, and "erotic" messages on mobile information service projects. "Talks on eroticism and sex," "Nights of extreme temptation," and other provocative language has repeatedly appeared in subject lines, information contents, and short text message advertisements. Some widely distributed immoral unsolicited commercial messages, some which even openly offer pornographic pictures and pornographic chat room services, in violation of national laws and regulations regarding utilizing telecommunication networks to produce, copy, send, or disseminate pornographic, violent, or any other explicitly forbidden content. This has polluted the social atmosphere and has had a severely negative influence on society. In order to clean up mobile network information services, further strengthen control over the dissemination of harmful information on communication networks, and promote the continued healthy and orderly development of mobile information service businesses, regarding relevant issues you are hereby notified as follows:
1. Relevant telecommunications operating enterprises shall further strengthen social responsibility, and when actively providing relevant support services to mobile information service business operators, shall strictly uphold information security assurance responsibilities of a network operator in accordance with the principle of "he who manages shall bear responsibility," and focus on completing the following tasks:
(i) Strengthen supervision of mobile communication network access and strictly deny unlicensed telecommunication business operations access services.
(ii) Perfect supervision processes and work systems for mobile communication network access and transmission, impose information content examination and verification screening on all accessing information service businesses, and upon discovering information that contains or employs provocative language or disseminates information with contents that the state explicitly prohibits, deny access and transmission. With respect to those who already have access and transmission, upon discovery their access and transmission shall be immediately terminated in accordance with Article 62 of the Telecommunication Regulations, and a record shall be retained, and shall be reported to the relevant responsible telecommunication department.
(iii) Strengthen technical support, increase day-to-day situational awareness and real-time monitoring of the access and transmission of words, sounds, pictures, video, and other information, and upon discovering information that contains or employs provocative language or disseminates information with contents that the state explicitly prohibits, deny access and transmission. With respect to those who already have access and transmission, upon discovery their access and transmission shall be immediately terminated in accordance with Article 62 of the Telecommunication Regulations, and be dealt with severely.
(iv) Increase social supervision, strengthen user report handling mechanisms. It is necessary to establish dedicated consumer harmful information report receipt platforms, and immediately investigate consumers' reports of problems; with respect to verified problems, access and transmission shall be immediately terminated in accordance with Article 62 of the Telecommunication Regulations, and be dealt with severely, and a response regarding the result of the disposition shall be provided to the consumer. At a specified time prior to the tenth day of the month a report of the previous month's consumer harmful information complaints and the status of their disposition shall be submitted to the relevant responsible telecommunications department.
2. All mobile information service business operators shall bear responsibility for supervising information security for all accessing information services business operators, and strengthening supervision of all information services business they operate:
(i) Establish and perfect internal enterprise information security supervision responsibility mechanisms, perfect work flows, clarify responsibilities, and strengthen information security enterprise legal person responsibility mechanisms.
(ii) When gathering, publicizing, handling, and disseminating information, it is required to implement strict censorship of information content, and strictly prohibit the production, copying, sending, or dissemination of any information content that is pornographic, violent, or that contains or employs provocative language or disseminates information with contents that the state explicitly prohibits.
(iii) Perfect systems, strengthen measures, increase monitoring and supervision of all transmitted contents, and upon discovering anything that violates regulations, immediately cease transmission, retain a record, and report it to the local agency responsible for telecommunications.
(iv) Earnestly abide by the requirements of Industry and Commerce Advertisement Notice Number 22 [2005] issued jointly by the Ministry of Information Industry and the State Administration of Industry and Commerce, strictly prohibiting the dissemination of mobile information service advertisements with harmful contents through short text messages or other means. All mobile information service business operators, when transmitting mass or broadcast short text message mobile information service advertisements that include commercial solicitation, upon an expression from a consumer to refuse receipt, the short text message business shall cease transmitting.
(v) No mobile information service business operator may utilize its fee collection channels to accept fees on behalf of illegal criminal behavior.
3. From the end of September through October 30, relevant telecommunication operator enterprises and all mobile information service business operators shall earnestly organize and launch self-examination and self-rectification actions to control the dissemination of harmful information. Examine each item of transmitted information's heading and content, earnestly implement the demands of this notice, and immediately rectify any problems that are discovered.
Once self-examination and self-rectification work has concluded, all work units shall carry out a summary of the self-examination and self-rectification situation in a timely manner. The headquarters of all telecommunication operator enterprise groups and the enterprise headquarters of all providers of inter-regional mobile information service businesses shall submit a report to the Ministry of Information Industry prior to November 10. Each of the basic level enterprises of other mobile information service business operators, relevant telecommunication operator enterprises, and inter-regional mobile information service businesses shall submit a report to the communications administration of their local province, autonomous region, or municipality directly under the central government prior to November 20.
4. The communication administrations in each province, autonomous region, and municipality directly under the central government shall strengthen supervision of locally launched mobile information services involving telecommunication operator enterprises, as well as mobile information service business operators, and increase social supervision and the scope of lawful investigations and sanctions, and forcefully clean up the local mobile information service market environment.
(i) Supervise local relevant telecommunications operator enterprises and mobile information service business operators in their performance of administration of all network and information security work in accordance with rules, establish and perfect relevant information security supervision systems and integration mechanisms, designate specialized departments and specialized personnel to be responsible for information security monitoring and integrated communications with relevant telecommunication business operators.
(ii) Supervise and inspect the self-examination and self-rectification status of local relevant telecommunications operator enterprises and mobile information service business operators. With respect to those that have problems, it is necessary to order relevant enterprises to complete rectification work. With respect to those that do not rectify or deliberately conceal problems with self-examination and self-rectification, following examination they shall be dealt with severely in accordance with the law. Where it constitutes a crime, it shall be transferred to the judicial department for punishment for criminal responsibility in accordance with the law.
(iii) Strengthen the carrying out of supervision and examination of relevant telecommunication operator enterprises acceptance of consumers' harmful information reports and their handling status.
(iv) With respect to experiencing serious problems and relevant situations in implementing the demands of these notes, please report them to our Ministry's telecommunication administration in a timely manner.
5. The provision of words, sounds, pictures, video, and other information services to consumers through fixed telephone and other telephone terminals shall be carried out in accordance with the foregoing rules.
