BEIJING, Sept. 13 (Reuters) – China said Monday it would launch a new crackdown on technology giants to end its long-standing practice of blocking individual links on its sites or expecting consequences.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in a statement that it was the last step in Beijing’s massive crackdown on billions of dollars in investment from technology to education and property. The country’s largest companies.
China’s Internet is dominated by a handful of tech giants who have blocked their competitors’ links and services on historical platforms.
Restricting access to Internet links for no apparent reason “affects the user experience, harms users’ rights and disrupts the market,” said Jao Chuguu, a spokesman for the ministry, which has received reports and complaints from users since the launch of the industry review. Exercises in July.
“We are currently leading the companies involved in self-examination and correction,” he said. He noted that it was one of the first places to target instant messaging platforms.
He did not say what would happen to companies that failed to comply with the new rules.
MIIT did not name any companies, but the 21st Century Business Herald reported on Saturday that Alibaba Group Holdings Limited and Tencent Holdings Limited were among those told to stop last week.
The Hang Seng Tech Index (.HSTECH) in Alibaba Group (9988.HK) and Tencent Holdings (0700.HK) declined by 6% and 3% on Monday.
The practice of MIIT is common.
Restricts Tencent users from sharing content on the Tencent Instant messaging apps WeChat and QQ from the short video app owned by ByteDance. In February, Dawn filed a lawsuit in Beijing alleging that he was a monopolist. Tencent called those allegations baseless.
In other cases, Alibaba Taobao and Tamil e-commerce markets do not allow Tencent payment service WeChat Pay to be used as a payment option.
Tensent said he supports the MIIT policy and will make the necessary changes in standards.
An Alibaba spokeswoman quoted Reuters as saying on August 3 that “correction is very important.”
MIIT said on Monday that China has “too many” electric car manufacturers and encourages the government to step up. Read more
Reported by Brenda Goho and Henry; Edited by Christopher Cushing, Kenneth Maxwell and Anna Nikolachi da Costa
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