China puts recommendation algorithms on a register
On 1 March 2022 the Internet Information Service Algorithmic Recommendation Management Provisions took effect, signed on 31 December 2021 by the heads of four Chinese agencies. Article 24 requires an operator whose service has public opinion properties or social mobilisation capabilities to file its name, service form, domain of application, algorithm type and self-assessment report with a state register within ten working days of beginning to provide the service.
Why it matters
Until then the algorithm that ordered a feed was a trade secret the state learned about through complaints, if at all. Here for the first time came a duty to hand it to a register unprompted, on pain of a fine, and alongside it a user's right to switch the ordering off. The European act usually called the first binding regime for algorithms was still a draft on this date.
The provisions were adopted at the Cyberspace Administration's 20th office meeting on 16 November 2021 and signed on 31 December 2021 by the heads of the Cyberspace Administration, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security and the State Administration for Market Regulation. Article 17 gives a user either the choice not to be targeted on their individual characteristics or a convenient way to switch recommendation off, after which the provider must stop the related services immediately. The same article requires providers to let users choose and delete the tags they are targeted on. Article 21 forbids using an algorithm to extend unreasonably differentiated trading conditions, prices among them, on the basis of a consumer's tendencies and habits. Article 31 sets a fine between 10,000 and 100,000 yuan. What the record does not claim. The register is not a public catalogue of algorithms: what is filed is a description and a self-assessment report, not code or weights. The filing duty falls not on every operator but only on those whose service has public opinion properties or social mobilisation capabilities. The record names no enforcement: the inspection campaign the report cited was not checked here and does not enter.