New regulations in China will make chat group administrators responsible — and even criminally liable — for messages containing politically sensitive material, rumors and violent or pornographic content.

The regulations also demand that all chat room users in mainland China verify their real identity.

Introduced by the Cyberspace Administration of China on 7 September, the “Regulation on the Management of Internet Chat Group Service” represents a bold policy shift by extending the work of regulating online content beyond government workers and companies to the users themselves. Indeed, chat group administrators are merely users of chat services like WhatsApp, WeChat and QQ who create and manage groups that might chat about anything from childcare to the Communist Party congress.

From 8 October onward, chat group administrators will become a key human resource in China's internet control infrastructure.

Dovetailing with China's new regulation on the management of online comments, the news rules will also force chat service companies (such as WeChat and QQ) to punish users who have not verified their identities or who have violated other terms of use, such as posting scams, rumors or politically sensitive material. Users who violate these rules will have certain account privileges suspended, and have their social credit scores lowered.

The regulations also require that the companies record, monitor and retain users’ chat records for at least six months and notify authorities whenever they spot abusive use of group chats.

The initial regulation, issued by the Cyberspace Administration, stressed that group administrators should be responsible for the contents posted on the chat group. But it did not specify what exactly these responsibilities would be. The Public Security Bureau soon after stepped in, presenting nine types of content that should not be posted on chat groups:

Regulation on the Management of Internet Chat Group Service: Prohibited Content

Effective 8 October, the following types of content will be prohibited in chat groups on China-based messaging platforms: 1. Sensitive political content

2. Rumors

3. Internal documents [of the Chinese Communist Party and government units]

4. Content that is vulgar, pornographic, violent or shows drug-related criminal acts

5. News from Hong Kong and Macau that has not been reported by official media outlets

6. Military information

7. State secrets

8. Videos from anonymous sources that insult or destroy police’s reputation

9. Other illegal information

Chat group administrators who fail to remove prohibited content from chats can face criminal charges or administrative detention.

In addition to the list, the Public Security Bureau also presented a number of past cases, cited below, in which chat group administrators were punished through criminal prosecution or “political consequences.”

Case one: Insulting police officers A man from Jieshou county of Anhui province was frustrated by traffic police, who had established a late night checkpoint for drunk driving. In a chat room that he created, he wrote: “Are they nuts? Checking in the rain? [They are] a bunch of assholes who just want money.” As the insulting comments created negative social impact within his circle, the man was detained for five days for picking a quarrel. Case two: Online petition On 27 June 2016, several party members from Qianjiang city in Hubei province violated the law by illegally using a WeChat group to circulate a petition against a construction plan for a pesticide factory. The incident led to a public rally and obstructed public order. Recently, nine members of the chat group received party discipline, five received discipline warnings and 40 had to be re-educated. The administrator of the group received a discipline warning as he did not stop the petition and channelled the opinions in the chat group. Case three: Indecent and obscene articles A young person in Shenyang city created a 100+ member chat group. One of the members in the group kept sending out messages about a “big hit movie” and asked other group members to pay for access to [what turned out to be] a pornographic video. As the group administrator did not stop the member from selling the videos in the group, the police arrested him under the charge of “distributing obscene material.” Case four: Gambling activities A man from Fuxin prefecture of Liaoning province abused the “red envelope” function [a way to send money, as a gift] in several chat groups for gambling purposes between June to August 2015. The court sentenced the man to 2.5 years with a three-year suspension and a fine of RMB 50,000 yuan [approximately USD $8,000].

It is not clear whether these users’ activities were observed by chat service companies, chat group administrators, or some combination of the two.

Following the introduction of China's regulation on “rumors” in 2013, many netizens migrated from open social media platforms (such as Sina Weibo, similar to Twitter) to chat services for sharing information, because these tools allowed them to create closed groups and have semi-private conversations.

But in recent years, multiple netizens have been arrested due to the political nature of their comments on private chat groups. These new regulations seem to codify the practices behind these arrests and suggest that censorship over chat group messages will soon be much more robust.

On Weibo, netizens are anticipating how the new regulation might affect group chats that use dark humor:

你好，我想发个红包、加下群…..请填写下申请表格，分管领导签字上级部门盖章

Hi, I want to give a red envelope in my group…. pls fill up a form and ask your leader to sign the approval.

以后餐厅都要改成独立餐桌儿，汽车改成一个座儿的，陌生人认识先登记，从此天下太平

In the future, all resturants should redesign their tables for just one person and vehicles should only have one seat. You should pre-register before you meet a new friend. Then there will be peace on earth.

以后每个群都有地下党

In the future, every chat room who have a undercover CCP member stationed.

强烈支持党和国家出台的新政！群员违法，群主追责！并希望早日推广为村民违法，村长追责，县民违法，县长追责，市民违法，市长追责。依次类推，违法犯罪就能尽快消灭，共产主义就一定会在我们这一代人实现。

Support the party and new government regulations! Group administrators are responsible for group members’ illegal behavior! I hope very soon that village heads will be responsible for villagers’ illegal behavior, that county heads will be responsible for county residents’ illegal behavior, and that city heads will be responsible for citizens’ illegal behavior… all crimes would then vanish and we can fulfill the dream of communism in our generation.

要不直接断网吧 回到石器时代

Why not just cut the internet cable and return to the stone age?

The new regulations will go into force on 8 October.