Regulation of online platforms in Chinese law

Abstract

Regulation of online platforms has become an obvious trend in the last decade, which is associated with the significant impact of their functioning on millions of users. At the same time, approaches to such regulation are different and distinguish three main approaches – American, European and Chinese. The approach to regulating online platforms in the Peopleʼs Republic of China (PRC) is analysed. The uniqueness of the Chinese approach is due to: on the one hand, the involvement of authoritarian methods of management and regulation to control the population, and on the other hand, the successful promotion of innovation and technological progress development in this area, which allowed the creation in the PRC of one of the largest digital markets in the world in almost 30 years, where online platforms play a key role in social, economic and political processes. The hypothesis of the study posits that the regulation of online platforms in the PRC relies on an authoritarian management model, enabling swift response to challenges while providing support for domestic policy, as well as successfully supports the development of innovations in the digital sphere. The analysis of scientific sources provided an under­standing of the regulation of online platforms from the point of view of public and private interest balance, as well as clarification of the peculiarities of Chinese state policy. In turn, the highlighting of the peculiarities of the Chinese approach was achieved through a consistent teleological interpretation of Chinese regulatory acts, the subject of which is the regulation of access to the Internet and its use, and directly online platforms. The study identifies key features of the Chinaʼs approach to regulation: the implementation of political censorship, user de-anonymization, the creation of institutional platform oversight, and limiting the influence of foreign IT companies. The main results are the identification of the the dual nature of regulation: on the one hand, it is aimed at protecting users from platform abuses, and on the other hand, it ensures state control over information flows. Thus, the Chinese model of online platform regulation demonstrates a unique approach combining technocratic control with political objectives.