China mulls new rules to address cyber violence, bullying

BEIJING -- China is mulling a new regulation to address cyber violence and bullying content, which requires online service providers to monitor relevant content and take timely steps to deal with it.

The Cyberspace Administration of China published a draft of the regulation on Friday to solicit opinions from the public.

According to the draft, online violence and bullying refers to the spreading of content containing verbal insults, abuse, rumors or slander against an individual via the internet. It also covers online information about privacy, accusations that severely undermine people's physical and mental well-being, discrimination and malicious judgements targeting a specific person.

Online information service providers should perform their due duties and establish a properly functioning mechanism to address relevant problems, the draft says, citing measures including the management of user accounts, the review of relevant content, monitoring and early warnings, the handling of tip-offs, offering support to victims and measures to clean up relevant content.

Once the service providers detect such content, they should take action to remove, block or disconnect the content and restrict its spread, the draft states, adding that the monitoring should also cover short videos and live-streaming shows, so as to cut the spread of illegal information in a timely manner.

The document also asks service providers to take measures to facilitate evidence collection to aid victims.