CPPCC member Peng Jing: Oppose the killing of big data on Internet platforms

At the two sessions of the National People's Congress in 2021, Peng Jing, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, prepared the "Proposal on Strengthening the Regulation of Data Competition of Internet Platform Enterprises" and the "Legal Suggestions on Strengthening the Quality Assurance of Live Streaming Goods". For emerging industries such as the Internet and live broadcasting, Peng Jing paid attention to and found that there were links that needed legal regulation in her life, and proposed to legislate for key areas.

Peng Jing told China News Weekly that the current market concentration of some Internet platforms has increased unprecedentedly, which not only provides convenience in transactions for consumers, but also buries hidden dangers in consumption and personal safety. Judging from the various "gray areas" that have been disclosed so far, Internet platforms need legal and institutional supervision to guide the benign development of this sales model.

Among them, the protection of personal information is the focus of Peng Jing's attention. She believes that large Internet platform enterprises use huge data and user scenario stickiness to maliciously obstruct the development of other market entities, infringe on the rights of consumer data subjects, fair trade and the right to know, and even discriminate algorithmically against consumers, harming the interests of consumers.

Peng Jing, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and director of Chongqing Jingsheng Law Firm. Photo/Courtesy of respondents

Oppose the killing of big data on Internet platforms

China News Weekly: Where is the irregularity of data competition on Internet platforms?

Peng Jing: Now some platforms and enterprises, the concentration of the market is getting higher and higher, and a monopoly has been formed. This kind of monopoly and unfair competition has infringed on our personal information security, and even carried out big data killing and algorithm discrimination against consumers.

China News Weekly: What are the specific problems?

Peng Jing: The level of legal regulation of personal information protection on Internet platforms still needs to be improved, and the purpose of personal information processing is excessively magnified, and even the collection of personal information exceeds the limit. Some of our colleagues chatted that buying a commodity repeatedly on a platform is a price, and then changing an account to log in to buy, the price is sometimes cheaper, which is to kill the cooked.

In addition, the platform also forces the merchant to choose one of the two, if it is found that the merchant sells on other platforms, it will increase the percentage, block the merchant, deduct the security deposit, etc., which also constitutes unfair competition and infringes on the interests of the merchant. Based on this situation, we found that the competition of Internet platforms is fundamentally the competition of data, they have accumulated a large amount of data, and at the same time know the consumption habits of consumers very well.

China News Weekly: How can these issues be addressed at the legislative level?

Peng Jing: In response to the behavior I just said, I would like to make suggestions from three aspects: First, in terms of legislation, speed up the formulation of the "Personal Information Protection Law", and now that the draft is out, it will be deliberated after soliciting opinions, and the legislative process should be accelerated. In addition, I think that a data can be added to carry, the subject of personal information has the right to decide to transfer the personal information data generated on the platform to other platforms safely and conveniently; second, in supervision, for different industries, finance, education, communications, marketing and other industries and fields, form a high-standard platform supervision organization system, to achieve hierarchical and accurate supervision, while using new regulatory means online and offline seamless connection; the third is to adhere to the accountability of platform enterprises, while implementing the construction of compliance system. The compliance of modern enterprises is very important, and the platform should operate in a compliant manner.

The quality assurance of live streaming goods should be strengthened

China News Weekly: Why did you make this suggestion?

Peng Jing: Live streaming represents a format of emerging e-commerce, which brings good convenience to transactions, but after the demand has increased, there have been problems with the quality of live broadcast goods and false publicity. The sales model of e-commerce has two characteristics: immediacy and insufficient commodity information, legally the "Product Quality Law" and "Advertising Law" are scattered in the law, and there are some binding forces, but I think it should be specially regulated on the industry of online live broadcasting.

China News Weekly: How?

Peng Jing: First, it is to clarify the legal status of live broadcast subjects, because the main body of live broadcasting is more complicated, there are anchors, merchants, third-party platforms, payment platforms, of which live streaming practitioners do not have a clear entry threshold and responsibility positioning, they may have to bear multiple identities such as operators and advertising spokespersons at the same time, after the occurrence of problems, it is difficult for the regulatory authorities to determine the responsible subjects and increase the difficulty of rights protection. We now have a supervision and management measures for online transactions, and I suggest that it be upgraded to law as soon as possible, improve the legal system, and legislate according to the development trend of e-commerce or its own characteristics.

The second is supervision, which can be led by the Market Supervision Bureau to establish a supervision and management committee for online live broadcasting. In addition, the programs with live broadcasts can be classified, and the anchors of special products must have qualification conditions and entry thresholds, such as food, and he must have basic knowledge of the goods. In addition, the platform should strengthen supervision, and my suggestion is to develop a network public opinion detection software and filtering system to solve it from a technical point of view and strengthen the supervision of public opinion.

The third is to open a channel for open government affairs on the live broadcast platform to solve the problems reflected by the public and give timely feedback. At the same time, it is necessary to implement the accountability system and implement the preservation of content from the perspective of legal evidence collection, so as to solve the problem of presenting evidence when safeguarding rights.

China News Weekly: What rules should the industry itself make?

Peng Jing: Live broadcasting is now an industry, and it should be necessary to build a self-discipline mechanism. I think there should be a credit evaluation mechanism first, review the content, and introduce a blacklist system, and the platform should conduct consumer satisfaction surveys from time to time. After buying goods, it is often more difficult to deal with after-sales, in this case, it is necessary to smooth the rights protection channel, improve the efficiency of handling complaints, and even link to the market supervision department in the live broadcast room or live broadcast activities, so that the regulator can monitor in real time.

All in all, for the emerging format, it is necessary to support its development, but also to improve and perfect the relevant laws and regulations.