For the first time, Chinese internet giants such as Alibaba, Tiktok-owner ByteDance, and Tencent have shared details about their algorithms with China’s regulators.
Algorithms determine what users see and the order in which they see it, and they are critical to the growth of social media platforms.
Meta and Alphabet have successfully argued that they are trade secrets in the United States, despite calls for greater transparency.
The Chinese Cyberspace Administration (CAC) has published a list of 30 algorithms with descriptions.
It stated in a statement that its algorithm list would be routinely updated in order to prevent data abuse.
Among the algorithms listed is one from Alibaba’s e-commerce website Taobao.
According to the Chinese document, Taobao’s algorithm “recommends products or services to users based on their digital footprint and historical search data.”
The algorithm used by ByteDance for Douyin, China’s version of TikTok, is said to gauge user interests based on what they click, comment on, “like,” or “dislike.”
Trivium China’s head of tech policy research, Kendra Schaefer, described the data as “surface level.”
“It doesn’t appear that the algorithms have been submitted,” she told the Media.
“Each of these algorithms has been assigned a registration number, allowing the CAC to focus enforcement efforts on a specific algorithm. The question is, what is the next step in determining whether an algorithm is code compliant?”
However, Zhai Wei, executive director of the East China University of Political Science and Law’s Competition Law Research Center, believes the information provided was “much more detailed than what was published for sure.”
“That involves some business secrets that cannot be disclosed to the public,” he told Bloomberg.
When contacted by the Media on Tuesday, ByteDance declined to comment.
Tencent, NetEase, Baidu, and Alibaba did not immediately respond to arequest for comment.
This maneuver is ultimately about gaining control.
China has the world’s most extensive internet user base and is a massive e-commerce, gaming, and smartphone market. As a result, the number of technology companies operating there has grown exponentially in recent years.
Beijing fiercely guards the technology behind these companies and forbids its export beyond its borders.
However, it is concerned about how these platforms can influence public opinion in China and would prefer greater control over their technology and data. It wishes to direct people’s attention to content deemed suitable for public consumption by the state.
Beijing has urged service providers to ensure that algorithms “actively spread positive energy” and are not used to encourage indulgences, excessive spending, and celebrity culture exposure.
International brands such as Google and Facebook have been pressed to submit this type of information due to concerns about how they use data and curate content. Still, they have resisted until now, claiming that algorithms are business secrets.
Chinese regulators have tightened their grip on the technology sector for nearly two years.
In March, the country adopted new algorithm rules that allow users to opt-out of contributing to recommendations.
It also required the CAC to register algorithms with “public opinion properties or social mobilization capabilities.”
The fact that the registrations were made public, according to Ms Schaefer, was “remarkable.”
“I’m not aware of any other country in the world where you can go see a list of all of the pieces of code that are essentially informing your decisions, purchases, and content viewing decisions.”
