The People’s Republic of China has taken the first step toward implementing rules for those who create and disseminate online content. The law is recent and has generated discussion both nationally and internationally.
Two perspectives are in opposition: one of those who defend opinion, creativity, and freedom of expression, and another of those who defend the right to information, that is, the right to be free ans safe from misinformation.
This is my area of research in academia, I will try to summarize what is at stake, without resorting to typical legal jargon.
The right to information, although it varies from country to country, is based on details such as the right to inform and to be informed. However, a criteria that characterizes the concept of information is veracity.
Therefore, when Beijing approves a law requiring influencers to be qualified to create and share content, we can consider two assumptions:
- The first assumption is that a qualified person has the necessary knowledge to share scientifically based content, which, in principle, removes the danger of content causing harm to viewers.
- The second assumption is accountability. During the pandemic, we saw that academic training did not prevent many doctors and health professionals from recommending lemon or vinegar drops to “cure COVID.” Thus, those with credentials that enable content creation will have extra responsibility for content that may cause harm.
However, Chinese law only refers to “serious” areas, such as finance, health, medicine, law, or education. Children’s content, for example, is excluded. And this is a very specific case. Just consider examples from our lives.
- A few months ago, my two-and-a-half-year-old nephews were very attentive to YouTube, where kids videos were playing in random sequence. Suddenly, I decided to look and realized that characters from GTA, the videogame, were running around with sticks, swords, and axes, destroying the scenery wherever they went and hitting other characters.
- And it’s not all about violence. Two children with an online channel create totally shallow content, potentially leading boys and girls of the same age to follow or want to follow what they watch online, whether by asking their parents to buy everything the young duo shows online, or by repeating actions like painting everything in sight or breaking toys.
Therefore, what the Chinese government approved is relevante and commendable, but I consider it only a first step.
The problem is not exclusive to China. Worldwide, content creators and influencers use and abuse their platform visibility and audience for monetization at the expense of subjects they don’t understand.
It remains to be seen if more countries will follow suit.
Will the world follow China?
