“China has tightened rules for mobile app developers including requiring real-name registration and preserving users’ activity logs, the country’s internet regulator said on Tuesday, as Beijing looks to strengthen oversight of the growing app market,” Adam Jourdan reports for Reuters.
“The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said in a statement that mobile app providers would need to fulfill six requirements to help crack down on ‘unscrupulous’ use of their platforms to carry out fraud, distribute pornography and spread malicious rumors,” Jourdan reports. “Mobile app providers will have to verify users’ identities with real-name registration, improve censorship and punish users who spread what the CAC called illicit information on their platforms. The firms will also have to save user activity logs for a period of 60 days, it said.”
Jourdan reports, “Chinese authorities launched a campaign last week to clean up the comments sections on websites to prevent the spread of ‘harmful information’ and encourage what it considers more helpful, well-intentioned comments.”
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“App stores and providers must establish the identity of users, while monitoring and reporting postings that contain banned content,” David Ramli reports for Bloomberg. “The legitimacy of developers who post apps for download must also be verified, according to new rules posted on the Cyberspace Administration of China’s website Tuesday.”
“The regulations will apply to more than a dozen platforms that offer apps for download, including Apple’s and those operated by local smartphone makers,” Ramli reports. “Apple, which has a reputation for strictly policing its app store, had no immediate comment. Google’s app store isn’t available in China.”
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