Online philanthropy has many gray areas and related legal systems need to be improved
"The proportion of online donations in the total amount of social donations in the country has increased from 0.4% in 2013 to 4.1% in 2019." "In the past three years, the annual growth rate of donations raised by the Internet fundraising information platform of Chinese charity organizations has remained at 20%. In 2019, the network raised more than 5.4 billion yuan for charity, an increase of 68% over the previous year.”
This is the data disclosed in the "Report on the Development of China's Online Philanthropy" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report") issued by the Chinese Society of Social Security in Beijing on October 31.
This is the first research report in the field of online philanthropy in my country.
The report believes that at present, my country’s online philanthropy, especially personal assistance through the critical illness assistance network platform, lacks direct and effective legal regulations. Personal assistance from the circle of acquaintances through the Internet to an unfamiliar public has become a de facto and legal public fundraising. The unhealthy cases of has brought an adverse impact on the development of online philanthropy, and there are blind spots in supervision.
The report recommends improving the laws, regulations and policy systems for online charity fundraising.
Half a month ago, the report of the Enforcement Inspection Team of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress on the inspection of the implementation of the Charity Law, which was submitted to the 22nd meeting of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People’s Congress for deliberation, showed that the new crown pneumonia epidemic exposed the charity law’s emergency mechanism, There are still shortcomings in information disclosure, voluntary services, and legal propaganda. At the same time, it is insufficient to deal with the new challenges of Internet-derived charity.
Zheng Gongcheng, a member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, a member of the Social Construction Committee of the National People's Congress, and the president of the Chinese Society of Social Security, said that we should not turn a blind eye to the problems of online philanthropy, but need to speed up the improvement of relevant laws, regulations and policies to understand, tolerate, and take a positive attitude. Promote the rapid development of online charity.
The existing network charity laws, regulations and policy systems are not sound
my country's current definition of online philanthropy has a narrow and broad distinction. The narrowly defined online philanthropy refers to Internet fundraising regulated by charity regulations.
In a broad sense, online charity refers to all charitable activities carried out through the Internet for the purpose of helping others.
The report pointed out that as a novelty, online philanthropy has some problems in practice. For example, the legal relationship between charitable organizations and fundraising information platforms, donors, and beneficiaries is not clear; the information disclosure and transparency of some online charity fundraising platforms Insufficiency; some online platforms interweave commercial activities with mutual assistance or charitable activities, and current policies are in a state of vagueness; relevant departments lack effective coordination of online charity supervision.
Professor Xie Qiong, vice president and secretary general of the Charity Branch of the Chinese Society of Social Security and director of the People’s Livelihood Security Research Center of Beijing Normal University, analyzed that the main reasons for these problems were the lack of relevant laws and policies and the particularity of the Internet. When the Charity Law was drafted and enacted in 2016, online charity had not yet formed a prairie fire, and the law was downplayed.”
Xie Qiong sorted out the existing laws, regulations and policies governing online charity, mainly including the Charity Law, the Cybersecurity Law, the "Management Measures for Public Fundraising of Charitable Organizations", "Management Measures for Public Fundraising Platform Services", and "Management of Payment Services for Non-financial Institutions" Measures, "Internet Information Service Management Measures," and two recommended industry standards, including the "Basic Technical Specifications for Internet Public Fundraising Information Platforms for Charity Organizations" and "Basic Management Specifications for Internet Public Fundraising Information Platforms for Charity Organizations".
Many scholars who participated in the research and writing of the report have a relatively unanimous view: these legal norms cannot cover the entire online charity activities, and there are also problems in their implementation.
The Charity Law stipulates that "radio, television, newspapers, network service providers, and telecommunications operators shall verify the registration certificates and public fundraising qualification certificates of charitable organizations that use their platforms to conduct public fundraising."
The "Administrative Measures for the Service of Public Fundraising Platforms" only make rough principles and lack practical implementation rules.
At the same time, the unclear definition of the scope of online charity activities, the inadequate regulation of emerging charity phenomena and charitable activities, have led to the lack of adequate and effective regulations for the current use of the Internet for charitable activities.
Wang Min, a member of the Chinese Society for Social Security and associate professor of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, analyzed that the Internet has the functions of traditional media such as radio, radio, newspapers and periodicals, and can directly cause payment behavior. The Internet is already a place for charitable behavior. "But these characteristics determine that it is not appropriate. Comparing online philanthropy with charitable activities such as fundraising carried out through radio, television, newspapers and other media, more specific and targeted laws and policies are required."
Insufficient regulation of online philanthropy policies creates grey areas
The report pointed out that in the past four years since the implementation of the Charity Law, most of the policies surrounding the online fundraising regulations in the Charity Law have focused on strengthening the supervision of charitable organizations’ Internet fundraising information platforms, while clarifying the fuzzy boundaries of online charity is rarely involved, resulting in online charity. Wandering between "legal and illegal", "forward and standing still".
The report takes the “mutual insurance” launched by Alipay which was transformed into “mutual insurance” in November 2018 as an example. The full name of the former is “mutual insurance and mutual assistance plan”, which is a mutual insurance business launched by Xinmei Life Insurance Company. Mutual insurance clauses They were subject to the supervision of the banking and insurance regulatory authorities, but later stopped due to the supervision of the regulatory authorities; the latter became the "Internet critical illness mutual assistance plan" independently operated by Ant Financial, which changed from "mutual assistance network + insurance" to "Internet + After “mutual assistance”, it has changed from supervision to no supervision.
At present, Internet companies such as Didi, Suning, 360, Meituan and Baidu have begun to conduct network mutual assistance services, and the development of "network mutual assistance" continues to accelerate.
In early September of this year, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission’s Anti-Illegal Financial Activities Bureau released the "Illegal Commercial Insurance Activities Analysis and Countermeasures and Suggestions" report, stating that there are a large number of network mutual aid platforms such as Hu Hu Bao and Water Drop Mutual Assistance, and stakeholder risks cannot be ignored. Some pre-charges The model has formed precipitation funds, and there is a risk of "running off the road". If improperly handled and poorly managed, it may also cause social risks. Access standards should be studied as soon as possible.
Chen Bin, Deputy Secretary-General of the Charity Branch of the Chinese Society of Social Security and Associate Professor of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, said that whether these online mutual aid fundraising is a financial insurance act or a charitable act of the public needs to be defined by corresponding laws, and the relevant supervision departments and their The boundary of power and responsibility, otherwise, simply following the supervision of the financial and insurance industry may cause such mutual assistance or charitable activities to die out.
“Online donations are mostly small donations. Donors need to donate invoices to deduct tax. However, the period of obtaining invoices is too long in accordance with the current regulations, resulting in small donors not enjoying tax support. At the same time, charitable organizations have obligations in accordance with current regulations. Invoices are issued for each donation, but the amount of online donations is small and large, and many charitable organizations bear a large amount of time and labor costs for providing small invoices." Chen Bin further analyzed.
Chen Bin suggested that we should take the promotion of online philanthropy as the starting point to further improve my country’s online philanthropy laws, regulations and policy systems, add legal regulations for online philanthropy to the Charity Law, clarify the boundaries of online philanthropy activities, regulate online donation activities, and make clear The corresponding responsibilities of online platforms and the prohibition of online charity fraud in the name of engaging in charitable activities provide specific and clear basis for online platforms, online fundraising entities and online charity participants.
"The policies that support the development of philanthropy should also be specified, such as the opening of electronic invoice services and the provision of more convenient tax reduction and exemption services. It is an urgent matter. Punishing illegal activities in online fundraising in accordance with the law is an effective measure to maintain the healthy development of online philanthropy. "Chen Bin said.
Individuals seeking help urgently need to plug the loopholes in legal supervision
The report pays special attention to personal online help seeking, defining individuals seeking help through online platforms due to difficulties, and providing online fundraising services to help specific individuals as online charity in a broad sense.
The report uses the Internet critical illness help platform as an example. Since its inception more than 4 years ago, as of the end of August this year, the report has provided free fund-raising services for more than 1.3 million patients with serious illnesses in financial difficulties, with a cumulative fundraising amount of more than 330 The total number of donations exceeded 330 million.
The "99 Charity Days" initiated by Tencent Charity reached 1.899 billion in 2020 and raised 3.04 billion yuan.
Although the fundraisers of "99 Charity Day" are charitable organizations with public fundraising qualifications, the project sponsors are diverse, except for foundations, charity societies, Red Cross societies, social service organizations, social groups, and special funds that do not have public fundraising rights. It also includes individual helpers, enterprises, hospitals, village (neighborhood) committees, neighborhood offices, volunteer teams, poverty alleviation offices, education bureaus, finance bureaus and other government agencies.
Xie Qiong pointed out that, including the "99 Charity Day" and other online charity activities called "Chinese Internet Charity Feast", the Internet itself has the characteristics of virtuality, concealment, and complexity, as well as the Internet fundraising information platform for charity organizations. There are loopholes in the review mechanism and the lack of current laws and regulations. While bringing convenience to the public’s participation in charitable activities, there have been incidents of online donation fraud and donation fraud from time to time, which have seriously damaged the public’s love and goodwill, and reduced the public’s enthusiasm for donation. Affected the actual effect of online fundraising.
During the "99 Charity Day", it is inevitable that there will be problems such as unclear distinction between personal assistance and public fundraising, lax review, and illegal public fundraising.
Regarding the legal regulation of personal help network service platforms, Xie Qiong said: "The law must strictly regulate their behavior and protect their development. Clarifying the responsibilities and rights boundaries of these Internet platforms is the focus of legal regulation."
China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily reporter Wang Yijun and Jiao Minlong Source: China Youth Daily