China: Closed consultation on draft regulations on cyber violence

On 6 August 2023, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) closed its consultation on the draft regulations on cyber violence. The draft regulations provide a definition of online violence as any illegal or harmful information including insults, slander, rumours, invasion of privacy, denigration, discrimination, malicious speculation, and other information that severely affects physical and mental health. The draft regulations establish that network information service providers are responsible for information content management and are required to implement mechanisms to regulate and prevent online violent information. Further, network information service providers are responsible for the deletion, blocking, and restricting the dissemination of online violent information, including the review and blocking of live streaming and video content. Notably, the draft regulations empower network information service providers to regulate private message rules, allowing users to set options to only receive private messages from friends or refuse to receive any private messages.