A man looking at a phone is seen through a digitally decorated glass during the World Internet Conference in Wuzhen, Zhejiang province, China on Nov 23, 2020. (File photo by= Reuters/Aly Song) |
[Asia News = Reporter Reakkana] BEIJING: During an interview published on Sunday (Oct 17), the Industry Minister said China will continue its scrutiny of the Internet sector, rooting out practices including the blocking of site links by rival platforms and ensuring smaller players have room to develop, Reuters reported.
China has been engaged this year in a sweeping campaign across regulators to rein in its massive and free-wheeling online economy, led by giants Alibaba Group, Tencent Holdings, and others. Meanwhile, in July, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology launched a six-month regulatory campaign aimed at tackling issues including disrupting market order, infringing on the rights of users, compromising data security, and bombarding users with pop-up windows that could not be closed.
"Currently, corporations have increased their awareness of compliance, and some outstanding problems have been solved preliminarily," Xiao Yaqing, China's industry, and information minister told the official Xinhua news agency. He said that the blocking of rivals' links had been resolved, while unclosable pop-ups had mostly been eliminated. Xiao said the ministry will work with other government departments and the industry to ensure more space for the development of small- and medium-sized firms in the sector.