The "Regulations on the Administration of Algorithm Recommendations for Internet Information Services" jointly issued by the National Cyberspace Administration of China and other four departments will be officially implemented on March 1.
For ordinary users, the algorithm cannot be touched or understood, but it is widely affecting our access to Internet information services through various platforms.
Algorithms are ubiquitous and the problem of abuse continues
Algorithmic recommendation technology captures users' daily usage data, analyzes people's behaviors, habits and preferences, and then accurately provides various services such as information, entertainment, and consumption.
While providing convenience, in recent years, unreasonable applications such as "big data killing", traffic fraud, and inducing addiction have also brought troubles to our lives.
The "China Big Security Perception Report (2021)" jointly released by the Internet Development Research Center of Peking University and Internet companies shows that 70% of the respondents feel that algorithms can obtain their preferences and interests to "calculate" themselves, and nearly 50% Respondents said they wanted to escape the Internet and stay away from mobile phones under the constraints of algorithms.
Zuo Xiaodong, Vice President of China Information Security Research Institute: The push of these services is customized for us by network service providers, so customization is prone to abuse, which will damage our personal rights and interests, and seriously endanger national security. Therefore, Algorithm recommendations must be standardized.
The "Regulations" clarify that the application of algorithmic recommendation technology refers to the use of algorithmic technologies such as generation and synthesis, personalized push, sorting and selection, retrieval and filtering, and scheduling decision-making to provide information to users.
Almost all Internet companies that provide algorithmic recommendation services are within the scope of supervision, such as various short video platforms, e-commerce platforms, social platforms, and food delivery platforms.
In order to break the "black box" that the algorithm cannot touch or understand, the "Regulations" clearly require that users' right to know the algorithm and the right to choose the algorithm should be guaranteed. Users should be provided with options that are not tailored to their personal characteristics, or the algorithm recommendation service should be conveniently closed. options.
The "Regulations" require that algorithm recommendation service providers should adhere to the mainstream value orientation, actively disseminate positive energy, establish and improve the mechanism of manual intervention and user self-selection, and must not use algorithms to influence online public opinion, evade supervision and management, and conduct monopoly and unfair competition.
Discriminatory treatment must not be implemented
In recent years, some companies have used personal information to engage in big data "killing", pricing different groups differently, and implementing "price discrimination", which has made consumers very disgusted.
In this regard, how will the "Regulations" be cracked?
Ms. Hu from Shaoxing, Zhejiang ordered a hotel room through a business travel platform. When checking out, she found that the room fee paid through the platform was nearly double the actual room price of the hotel. She is a senior member of the business travel platform and should have enjoyed a 15% discount. discount.
Ms. Hu suspected that the business travel platform had "big data killing" 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 for a refund and compensation for three.
This case has been called the first case of "big data killing" by many media.
For the same delivery time, place, order, and takeaway platform, members pay more than non-members. At the same time, taking the same type of car to the same destination at the same place, a car-hailing platform was once discovered by users that regular customers charge more, and similar consumption Complaints are common.
In this regard, the "Regulations" propose that algorithm-recommended service providers who sell goods or provide services to consumers shall protect consumers' right to a fair transaction, and shall not use algorithms in transaction prices, etc., based on characteristics such as consumers' preferences and transaction habits. Unreasonable differential treatment and other illegal acts in terms of trading conditions.
Zuo Xiaodong, Vice President of China Information Security Research Institute: Some platforms will say that this algorithm is my intellectual property and my trade secret, and I cannot disclose it.
None of these claims can be established, and the platform's algorithm must ensure the necessary transparency.
Experts emphasized that the "Regulations" also clearly protect the rights and interests of users such as the right to choose and the right to delete.
Avoid consumers being “calculated” by algorithms by providing users with options that are not specific to their personal characteristics, or providing users with a convenient option to turn off algorithmic recommendation services, and providing the ability to select or delete user tags specific to their personal characteristics.
Protect the legitimate rights and interests of workers and avoid being "trapped" by algorithms
In addition, the "Regulations on the Administration of Algorithm Recommendations for Internet Information Services" requires that algorithm recommendation service providers that provide work scheduling services to workers shall protect workers' legitimate rights and interests such as labor remuneration, rest and vacations, and the relevant information.
In September 2020, an article titled "Takeaway Riders, Trapped in the System" attracted much attention.
The article describes that, driven by the algorithms and data of the food delivery platform system, the delivery time of food delivery riders is constantly being compressed. Driven by a powerful system, the riders have to choose to go retrograde and run red lights in reality in order to avoid bad reviews and maintain income. .
Many takeaway riders said that in high-rise buildings with dozens of floors, the elevator waits for ten minutes or even longer, but this objective situation has not been taken into account by the "algorithm system".
Liang Zheng, Deputy Dean of the Institute of International Governance of Artificial Intelligence of Tsinghua University: Since the machine is still in the development stage, for some labor work scenarios, the decision-making power is handed over to the machine, which has a great hidden risk of fairness and reliability.
The optimization algorithm of the Internet platform mainly calculates the best strategy for business operation through the big data analysis algorithm model. At the same time, there is a set of strict performance evaluation mechanism that cooperates with the algorithm. Once some algorithm rules are violated, it will be lost in the evaluation. "Advantages" and may have brought some vicious coping behaviors.
In this regard, the "Regulations" specifically propose that algorithm recommendation service providers who provide work scheduling services to workers shall protect workers' legitimate rights and interests such as labor remuneration, rest and vacation, and establish and improve platform order distribution, remuneration composition and payment, working hours, Rewards and punishments and other related algorithms.
Ensure that the algorithm is open and transparent, and prevent the impact of public opinion by brushing the amount of control and evaluation
Hiring online "water army" to carry out traffic fraud, inciting fans of "fan circle" to tear each other, brushing volume control and commenting, some algorithm recommendation service providers intervene in hot searches, and the phenomenon of affecting online public opinion is criticized.
The "Regulations on the Administration of Internet Information Service Algorithms Recommendations" that will be implemented tomorrow will put a "curse" on such "black hands" who influence online public opinion.
In the entertainment industry, some traffic stars can easily get hundreds of millions or even billions of commercial returns. The star business platform does everything to create topics, hype, and any behavior that can arouse fans' attention and discussion, even among fans. Online scolding is the regular planning content of the business team.
The brand side is also well versed in this, and even uses means to deliberately create conflicts between different fans, setting off a scolding war to attract attention and attract traffic.
The "Regulations on the Administration of Algorithm Recommendations for Internet Information Services", officially implemented on March 1, require algorithm recommendation services to follow the principles of openness and transparency, and encourage algorithm recommendation service providers to comprehensively use strategies such as content de-duplication and disruptive intervention to optimize the transparency of rules and the interpretability.
Establish and improve management systems such as algorithmic mechanism review, scientific and technological ethics review, user registration, and information release review. Algorithms must not be used to manipulate lists, control hot searches, etc. to interfere with the presentation of information.
Zuo Xiaodong, Vice President of China Information Security Research Institute: The content we see may deviate more and more from fairness, deviate from neutrality, be artificially or be guided by an algorithm behind it, then necessary intervention is required.
Zhang Xin, executive director of the Digital Economy and Legal Innovation Research Center of the University of International Business and Economics: In principle, we are told that these designers cannot develop such algorithms. What if such corresponding behaviors are carried out?
This time, the management regulations are very clear about the need to bear the corresponding responsibilities.
Preventing Induced Addictive Consumption and Protecting the Interests of Special Groups
How to prevent users from indulging in addiction and excessive consumption, and protect the rights and interests of special groups such as minors?
In response to these demands, the "Regulations" that will be implemented tomorrow also have refined regulations.
Many experts said that establishing a sound and scientific supervision system and forming a long-term mechanism for algorithmic governance will be the core elements to ensure the implementation of the "Regulations".
The "Regulations" propose that algorithm recommendation service providers should regularly review, evaluate, and verify algorithm mechanisms, models, data and application results, etc., and must not set up algorithm models that induce users to indulge in addiction, excessive consumption, etc. that violate laws and regulations or violate ethics.
For minors, the "Regulations" propose that algorithm recommendation service providers shall not push to minors, which may cause minors to imitate unsafe behaviors and behaviors that violate social morality, induce minors' bad habits, etc., which may affect the physical and mental health of minors information, and shall not use algorithm recommendation services to induce minors to indulge in the Internet.
The "Regulations" also require that algorithm-recommended service providers to provide services to the elderly shall protect the rights and interests of the elderly in accordance with the law, fully consider the needs of the elderly for travel, medical treatment, consumption, and work, and provide intelligent elderly-friendly services in accordance with relevant national regulations. Serve.
How is regulation implemented?
The "Regulations" are clear, pre-supervision, establish algorithm filing, algorithm evaluation and other systems; differentiate supervision, establish a hierarchical classification idea; systematic supervision, establish a situation of pluralistic co-governance.
Experts believe that the "Regulations" focus on improving the governance system to achieve full-process and full-chain supervision before and after the event.
If algorithm recommendation service providers violate relevant regulations, they will be given warnings, criticisms, fines, etc., and if necessary, public security management penalties and criminal responsibility will be imposed.
Zuo Xiaodong, Vice President of China Information Security Research Institute: It is very important to emphasize the main responsibility, because the platform is the user recommended by the algorithm, so only if the responsibility of the platform is compacted, then the platform can consciously implement the requirements of laws and regulations.