Internet legislation supervision expects an upgraded version

In the face of the existing legislative supervision, new problems brought about by technological innovation and business model innovation emerge in endlessly. Therefore, Internet legislation needs to find a reasonable balance between the constant changes in Internet technology and the stability of the law.

"We must formulate an 'Internet +' action plan to promote the integration of mobile Internet, cloud computing, big data, and the Internet of Things with modern manufacturing, promote the healthy development of e-commerce, industrial Internet, and Internet finance, and guide Internet companies to expand into the international market." At this year's two sessions, Premier Li Keqiang's "Government Work Report" put forward a clear vision for the future of the economy.

Today, the “Internet+” promotes the surge of popular innovation and entrepreneurship, but the potential risks of leakage of business information, personal information, and abuse are also increasing. The controversy surrounding the use of taxi software to break the traditional pattern of the interests of the taxi industry reflects the predicament it encounters at the legal level behind a large number of Internet-specific "cross-border robbery."

Finding a balance between technology and law

In fact, over the past 20 years or so, China’s formal access to the Internet has been accompanied by legislation concerning the Internet. Today, relevant legislation has become spectacular. At the level of laws and regulations, as early as 2001, China had already promulgated the "Decision of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on Maintaining Internet Security", as well as more than 10 administrative regulations such as the Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Telecommunications and the Regulations on the Protection of the Right to Spread of Information on the Internet. More than 20 important departmental regulations and a number of judicial interpretations issued by “Two Highs” have been standardized in various areas such as network information services and cybercrime.

However, legal experts have stated that there are still many problems in China's existing Internet laws and regulations, including the lower level of specific legislation in the Internet field and the poor systematization and coordination among legislative bodies. The "Internet +" strategy proposed is an urgent requirement for the legislative outlook.

It is understood that in the current laws and regulations involving more than 170 Internet-related laws, Internet legislation with the nature of legal nature and administrative regulations is less than 21%, and the proportion of departmental rules and judicial interpretations with lower levels of legal effectiveness is nearly 80%; The main bodies of legislation include 24 departments including the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the State Council, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Feng Yujun, a professor at the Law School of Renmin University of China, believes that the difficulties faced by China's Internet legislation are mainly reflected in the fact that, on the one hand, there are many politicities, and the relevant legislative techniques need to be improved; on the other hand, the legislation has inherent lag and stability characteristics. This is inevitable. There is a conflict with the characteristics of the "instantly fast and not broken" nature of the Internet's innovation and development.

"Internet legislation needs to find a reasonable balance between the constant changes in Internet technology and the stability of the law." Feng Yujun said, "China's Internet legislation still needs to break through the situation of multi-draft control and establish a targeted system. Sexuality, operability, and forward-looking laws guarantee a comprehensive governance system."

Both "red light" and "green light"

With the rapid development of Internet technology, the Internet is almost inseparable from the real world. Many legal disputes have been “translated” to the Internet platform, and various “infringements” caused by new technologies and new environments are becoming more and more common. Legal disputes such as copyright infringement and personal privacy protection are also increasing.

Yu Guorui, deputy editor of Tudou.com, told the author that the company recently encountered infringement disputes. “Tudou.com paid a lot of money for the production of a program. After it was broadcast, it was also praised by the Internet. However, it turned out that some video websites not only intercepted the highlights on their own websites, but also blocked the potatoes. The sign.” Yu Guorui said, “Because the current regulations unequivocally define the obligations of all parties, we also find it difficult to take drastic measures. We can only let legal affairs and them negotiate and remove related videos.”

Faced with new situations and new problems, Jiang Qi, president of Deheng Law Group, believes that the treatment of the Internet against the existing legal regulatory system under current conditions cannot be killed by one stick, but should be differentiated. He compared it to The “traffic light” principle: Some internet innovations can operate well within the existing legal framework system. The “green light” should be released. Some innovations are not consistent with the practices in past legislative supervision but due to the flexibility of legal interpretation. It has set aside legal space for it, and this need not be overly suppressed, but it should light up the “yellow light” to remind it; some Internet innovations are in direct contact with the bottom line of laws and regulations and must be preceded by no further legislative changes. "Red light" banned.

In this regard, Prof Xue Jun, deputy dean of the School of Law of Peking University, said that in terms of the value orientation of legislation, maintaining cybersecurity should be the primary value pursuit, while taking into account the freedom of the Internet, focusing on protecting citizens’ right to privacy and freedom of speech, and achieving cybersecurity. Coordination with the freedom of the network.

“In recent years, the value orientation of Internet legislation has been more focused on protecting the development of the Internet.” Feng Yujun also expressed similar views. “Taking Weibo as an example, information published by websites in the past was controlled by the website itself, but after microblog A large number of Weibo users have become the source of information dissemination, and microblogging operators face such a huge amount of information, and there is no way to review all information content. Obligations are bound to increase the burden on the website and are not conducive to the development of the website."

Legislation to protect the vitality of the Internet

According to the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) Statistical Report on Internet Development in China, as of December 2014, the number of Internet users in China reached 649 million, and the Internet penetration rate was 47.9%.

“The in-depth popularization of the Internet has gradually challenged the traditional industry concept of the Internet while gradually pushing existing industries to the 4.0 era.” Zhu Xi, a researcher at China University of Political Science and Law’s Center for Communication Law, believes that network technology has already brought every aspect of civil life into practice. "Interconnection and interconnection" can only really show the guiding role of legislation by introducing the characteristics of Internet technology into the Civil Code.

Zhu Xi stated that "big data + 'has a great impact on civil life. For example, the traditional protection of privacy rights will be broken. The contract responsibility of the new service industry will replace the substitute responsibility. The scope of property rights will be further expanded, and the virtual personality will be Independence, the concept of neutrality of the Internet is about to change, and these trends require that legislative supervision must break through the inherent way of thinking."

As early as December 2013, the National People's Congress Financial and Economic Committee established a drafting group for e-commerce law. Its drafting principles include three: encourage innovation, competition and development, standardize the market order, and protect the legitimate rights and interests of the market and market players.

In this regard, Liu Pinxin, associate professor of the Law School of Renmin University of China, believes that “E-commerce represented by Ali has worked out a number of operational platform regulations for various social relationships in e-commerce transaction activities. In addition to the improvement of Internet laws and regulations, In addition to these provisions, they should also maintain an open attitude and actively accept the supervision and participation of the majority of Internet users."

It is understood that at present, China’s special legislation in the field of Internet is mostly a regulatory content, and legislation to protect the rights of Internet users or Internet service providers is still relatively lacking. Of the more than 170 laws and regulations concerning the Internet currently in force, the proportion directly involving the word “management” accounts for nearly 64%, while the purpose of legislation includes “maintaining national security and social public interests” and “protecting individuals, legal persons and other organizations. Less than 35% of the Internet legislation in the legal expression of "legitimate rights" or similarly protected rights is expressed.

"In this era of going to the right, special legislation in the Internet field should provide more rights protection and less content for network supervision." Xue Jun said, "In emphasizing network regulation and standardization, we should attach importance to network regulation. The purposeful tendency makes administrative agencies adopt various flexible regulations, seek more effective normative methods, and take different measures for different network problems."

In this regard, Zhao Yunze, a researcher at the Journalism and Social Development Research Center of the School of Journalism at Renmin University of China, said: “Our management of the Internet should be based on the concept of openness, inclusiveness, and encouragement of innovation. We must not be able to manage it, and we must lose the Internet. Vitality.” At the same time, the legislation of the Internet cannot be confined to discussions in the legal field. Instead, it requires the participation of talents from different disciplines such as computer science, law, political science, and communications. It will probably take some time to raise this issue to the legislative level.