China’s tech giants vow

 

China’s tech giants vow to fix algorithm issues amid government crackdown



Major Chinese internet platforms have vowed to improve their algorithms, after the mainland’s internet watchdog launched a campaign to address the misuse of the technology underpinning the recommendation functions of apps and websites.

ByteDance’s TikTok alternative for its home market, Douyin, said on Friday it would establish a safety centre this year to make its recommendation system more transparent. It will also provide a more diverse video feed and strengthen its crackdown on misinformation and online violence, according to the company’s WeChat post.
Pinduoduo, a budget shopping app run by Temu owner PDD Holdings, said on the same day that it was “actively building a healthier ecosystem” to prevent “Big Data-enabled price discrimination”, according to Chinese news outlet Yicai. PDD did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside business hours on Saturday.
Also on Friday, Xiaohongshu, a lifestyle community known as “China’s Instagram”, published a post on its platform, which invited users to learn how its app algorithms work and reminded users that they can disable personalised recommendations any time. The company also said it was soliciting public comments on how to polish its algorithms.
The moves come amid a three-month official campaign launched late in November to address “typical issues with algorithms” on online platforms, including filter bubbles, where users are isolated from content that disagrees with their views, and unfair pricing targeting different demographics.

The campaign is led by the Communist Party’s commission for cyberspace affairs, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and other relevant departments.

The Beijing branch of the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) in December summoned representatives from 11 online platforms based in the city – including on-demand food delivery company Meituan, ride-hailing firm Didi Chuxing and internet search giant Baidu – to talk about issues related to algorithms.

Meituan said late last month it would hold a quarterly meeting with experts, users, delivery workers and merchants to refine its algorithms. It also promised to improve its treatment of riders by optimising the delivery routes and introducing a mechanism to alert riders or stop them from taking orders if they were working overtime.

That same month, the CAC’s Shanghai branch met representatives from more than 100 websites, including Pinduoduo, Xiaohongshu and video streaming site Bilibili.

The crackdown campaign, which officially concludes on February 14, follows a 2022 regulation issued by the CAC and three other government agencies that called for platforms to “promote positive energy” and allow users to conveniently turn off personalised recommendations.

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