The ＂Regulations on the Administration of Internet Information Service Algorithm Recommendation＂ came into effect today.

The "Regulations on the Administration of Internet Information Service Algorithm Recommendation" jointly issued by the National Network Information Office and other four departments came into effect on March 1. For ordinary users, the algorithm can’t be touched or understood, but it is widely affecting our access to Internet information services through various platforms.

The algorithm is everywhere, and the abuse problem is constant.

Algorithm recommendation technology captures users’ daily usage data, analyzes people’s behaviors, habits and preferences, and then provides information, entertainment, consumption and other services accurately. While providing convenience, in recent years, unreasonable applications such as "big data killing", traffic fraud and induced addiction have also brought troubles to our lives. According to the "China Great Security Perception Report (2021)" jointly released by Peking University Internet Development Research Center and Internet companies, 70% of the respondents feel that the algorithm can obtain their own preferences and interests and thus "calculate" themselves. Nearly 50% of the respondents said that they want to escape from the network and stay away from their mobile phones under the constraint of the algorithm.

Zuo Xiaodong, Vice President of China Institute of Information Security.The push of these services is customized by network service providers, so customization is easy to be abused, which will harm our personal rights and interests and seriously endanger national security, so algorithm recommendation must be standardized.

The "Regulations" clarify that the application of algorithm recommendation technology refers to providing information to users by using algorithm technologies such as generating synthesis class, personalized push class, sorting selection class, retrieval filtering class and scheduling decision class. All kinds of Internet companies that provide algorithm recommendation services are almost within the scope of supervision, such as various short video platforms, e-commerce platforms, social platforms and catering take-out platforms.

In order to break the "black box" that the algorithm can’t be touched or understood, the Regulations clearly require that users’ right to know the algorithm and the right to choose the algorithm should be guaranteed, and users should be provided with options that are not specific to their personal characteristics, or conveniently close the algorithm recommendation service.

The "Regulations" require algorithm recommendation service providers to adhere to the mainstream value orientation, actively spread positive energy, establish and improve the mechanism of manual intervention and users’ independent choice, and not use algorithms to influence online public opinion, evade supervision and management, and monopolize and unfair competition.

Do not implement differential treatment. Sword refers to big data "killing"

In recent years, some enterprises use personal information to "kill" big data, make differential pricing for different groups, and implement "price discrimination", which makes consumers very disgusted. In this regard, how will the "Regulations" be cracked?

Ms. Hu from Shaoxing, Zhejiang, ordered a hotel room through a business platform. When she checked out, she found that the room rate paid through the platform was nearly twice as high as the actual room rate of the hotel. As a senior member of the business platform, she should have enjoyed a 15% discount. Ms. Hu suspected that the business travel platform had "big data killing" behavior through her previous consumption behavior and took the business travel platform to court. In July last year, the court of first instance granted the plaintiff’s request to refund one and compensate three. This case was called the first case of "big data killing" by many media.

Members pay more than non-members for the same delivery time, place, order and take-away platform; At the same time, the same type of car was driven to the same destination in the same place. A taxi platform was once discovered by users, but the charges were higher, and similar consumer complaints often occurred. In this regard, the "Regulations" propose that if the algorithm recommends service providers to sell goods or provide services to consumers, they should protect consumers’ right to fair trade, and should not use algorithms to implement unreasonable differential treatment and other illegal acts on trading conditions such as trading prices according to consumers’ preferences and trading habits.

Zuo Xiaodong, Vice President of China Institute of Information Security.Some platforms will say that this algorithm is my intellectual property and my business secret, and I can’t make it public. None of these statements can be established, and the algorithm of the platform should ensure the necessary transparency.

Experts stressed that the "Regulations" also clearly protect the rights and interests of users such as the right to choose and delete. By providing users with options that are not specific to their personal characteristics, or providing users with convenient options to turn off the algorithm recommendation service, and providing the function of selecting or deleting user tags that are specific to their personal characteristics, consumers are prevented from being "calculated" by the algorithm.

Protect the legitimate rights and interests of workers and avoid being trapped by algorithms.

In addition, in the "Regulations on the Administration of Internet Information Service Algorithm Recommendation", it is required that if an algorithm recommendation service provider provides work scheduling services to workers, it should protect workers from obtaining legitimate rights and interests such as labor remuneration, rest and vacation, and learn more about the relevant situation.

In September 2020, an article entitled "Takeaway Rider, Trapped in the System" attracted much attention. This paper describes that the delivery time of take-away riders is constantly compressed driven by the algorithm and data of the take-away platform system. However, driven by the powerful system, riders have to choose retrograde and red light running in reality in order to avoid bad reviews and maintain their income. Many take-away riders said that the first class of elevators in dozens of high-rise buildings is ten minutes or even longer, but such an objective situation has not been taken into account by the "algorithm system".

Liang Zheng, Vice President of Tsinghua University Institute of Artificial Intelligence International Governance.Because the machine is still in the development stage, there is a great hidden risk of fairness and reliability in handing over the decision power to the machine for some labor and work scenarios.

The Internet platform optimization algorithm mainly calculates the best strategy of business operation through the big data analysis algorithm model. At the same time, it also has a set of strict performance appraisal mechanism. Once it violates some algorithm rules, it will lose its "advantage" in the assessment and may bring some vicious coping behaviors. In this regard, the "Regulations" specifically propose that when the algorithm recommends that service providers provide work scheduling services to workers, they should protect workers’ legitimate rights and interests such as labor remuneration, rest and vacation, and establish and improve relevant algorithms such as platform order distribution, remuneration composition and payment, working hours, rewards and punishments.

Ensure that the algorithm is open and transparent, and prevent the brush control and evaluation from affecting public opinion.

Hiring the network "water army" to implement traffic fraud, encouraging "rice circle" fans to tear each other and control the evaluation. Some algorithms recommend service providers to intervene in hot search, which affects online public opinion. The "Regulations on the Administration of Internet Information Service Algorithm Recommendation", which will be implemented tomorrow, will put a "tight spell" on such "black hands" who influence online public opinion.

In the entertainment industry, some traffic stars can get hundreds of millions or even billions of commercial returns at every turn. Star commercial platforms do everything they can to make topics and hype, and any behavior that can arouse fans’ attention and discussion, even the online battle between fans, is the routine planning content of commercial teams. The brand side also knows this well, and even uses means to deliberately create contradictions between different fans, and set off a war to attract attention and pull traffic.

The Administrative Regulations on Algorithm Recommendation for Internet Information Services, which was formally implemented on March 1st, requires that algorithm recommendation services should follow the principle of openness and transparency, and encourages algorithm recommendation service providers to comprehensively use strategies such as content deduplication and scattered intervention to optimize the transparency and interpretability of rules. Establish and improve management systems such as algorithm mechanism review, science and technology ethics review, user registration, information release review, etc., and do not use algorithms to manipulate lists and control hot search to interfere with information presentation.

Zuo Xiaodong, Vice President of China Institute of Information Security.: What we see may be more and more deviated from justice, neutrality, artificially guided or guided by an algorithm behind it, so it is necessary to intervene.

Zhang Xin, Executive Director of Digital Economy and Legal Innovation Research Center of University of International Business and EconomicsIn principle, it tells us that these designers can’t develop such an algorithm. What if they do such a corresponding behavior? This time, it is very clear in the management regulations that we should bear the corresponding responsibilities.

Preventing indulging in consumption and protecting the interests of special groups

How to prevent users from indulging and consuming excessively and protect the rights and interests of special groups such as minors? In response to these demands, the "Regulations" that will be implemented tomorrow have also been refined. Many experts said that establishing and perfecting a scientific supervision system and forming a long-term mechanism for algorithmic governance will be the core essence to ensure the implementation of the Regulations.

The "Regulations" propose that algorithm recommendation service providers should regularly review, evaluate and verify the algorithm mechanism, models, data and application results, and must not set up algorithm models that induce users to indulge and over-consume, which violate laws and regulations or violate ethics.

For minors, the Regulations propose that algorithmic recommendation service providers should not push information to minors that may cause minors to imitate unsafe behaviors and violate social ethics, induce minors’ bad habits and other information that may affect their physical and mental health, and should not use algorithmic recommendation services to induce minors to indulge in the Internet. The "Regulations" also require that when algorithmic recommendation service providers provide services to the elderly, they should protect the rights and interests enjoyed by the elderly according to law, fully consider the needs of the elderly for travel, medical treatment, consumption and work, and provide intelligent services for the elderly in accordance with relevant state regulations.

How to implement supervision? The "Regulations" clarify that supervision should be carried out in advance, and systems such as algorithm filing and algorithm evaluation should be established; Distinguish supervision and establish the idea of classification; Systematic supervision, establish a situation of multi-governance Experts believe that the "Regulations" focus on improving the governance system and realizing the whole process and whole chain supervision before and after the event. If the algorithm recommendation service provider violates the relevant regulations, it will be punished by warning, informed criticism, fine, etc. If necessary, it will also be punished by public security administration and investigated for criminal responsibility.

Zuo Xiaodong, Vice President of China Institute of Information Security.It is very important to emphasize the main responsibility, because the platform is the user recommended by the algorithm, so only by compacting the responsibility of the platform can the platform consciously implement the requirements of laws and regulations.