Action in Accordance with Law to Forge a Partnership for Co-governance: 22nd Shanghai Online Violence Prevention Forum to Be Launched Today in Shanghai
Combating cyberbullying: everyone’s responsibility
On December 28th, the Shanghai Anti-Cyberbullying Forum, themed “Combating cyberbullying and curbing violence – Jointly building a positive and harmonious cyberspace”, will open in Shanghai. This forum is guided by the Office of the Central Committee of the Shanghai Municipality for Network Security and Information Technology, and is hosted by the Shanghai Internet Industry Federation with Pengpai News and Beijing Dacheng (Shanghai) Law Firm as the organizers. Representatives from various sectors including regulatory authorities, social media platforms such as Sina Weibo, WeChat, Douyin, Xiaohongshu, Bilibili, mainstream media, experts, scholars, and online influencers will participate in this forum.
In June of this year, the National Office for Internet Information published the “Regulations on the Governance of Cyberbullying Information” jointly with the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and the National Radio and Television Administration. These regulations will be implemented from August 1st, 2024. The series of laws, regulations, and policy documents released by the Supreme People’s Procuratorate in July have clarified the direction for multi-domain governance of cyberbullying and the creation of a good online ecology. Therefore, this forum will focus on new concepts, paths, and models of cyberbullying prevention brought about by the implementation of new regulations, and seek new consensus from multiple parties.
This is the second time that the Shanghai Anti-Cyberbullying Forum has been held. The first forum was held on December 1 2023 and discussed how to play their respective roles in the fight against cyberbullying.
The forum consists of three sections: the main forum, the network management sub-forum, and the social responsibility sub-forum. For the main forum section, industry and academic guests such as Chen Feng from Beijing Dacheng (Shanghai) Law Firm’s Party Committee Secretary, Sina Weibo’s Deputy Editor-in-Chief Shen Yijie, Xiaohongshu’s Executive Editor Liu Man, Bilibili’s Executive Editor Feng Zhihong, Fudan University’s Network Space International Governance Research Base Director Shen Yi, and Pengpai News Editor-in-Chief Liu Yonggang will share their views and practical experiences on cyberbullying governance challenges and solutions.
Industry experts such as Li Hongbing, a special professor at Fudan University and former deputy director of People’s Daily Shanghai Branch, Yang Yuzhou from the Social Welfare and Social Responsibility Committee of Shanghai Internet Industry Federation as well as industry insiders and reporters from popular media outlets such as Jin Zhongwei from Observer Network Editorial Board, Yan Qiuqiu from Xinmin Evening News Senior Reporter, Yangpu District Media Center (Network Information Center) Deputy Director Cai Jiri and General Editor Chang Luo from Dimsum will attend the sub-forums on network management and social responsibility to discuss key topics such as the generation mechanism of cyberbullying, prevention governance, rights and responsibilities division to provide new ideas, paths and models for further exploring cyberbullying governance and creating a better green network information space atmosphere.
In addition, the forum will also release for the first time the “Anti-Cyberbullying Research Report” launched by the Digital Content Ecology Lab. The report systematically analyzes the causes, forms of expression and hazards of cyberbullying as well as governance mechanisms and new models of cyberbullying governance across six chapters. Meanwhile, the “Finance Truth-seeking Platform” will also be officially launched at this forum.
The scourge of online violence is more severe than a tiger. To effectively prevent and respond to cyberbullying and safeguard internet users’ legitimate rights and interests since 2022 the Central Internet Information Office has deployed to launch the “Qinglang Network Bullying Special Governance Action”. Data shows that in the first half of 2024 alone national law enforcement agencies investigated over 3500 cases of cyberbullying taking criminal measures against more than 800 people while penalizing over 3400 others.
In Shanghai in response to online violent behavior violations such as “network toilets”, Shanghainingternet authorities have launched multiple rectification actions including a special action against network hooligans in 2023 that crack down on seven aspects including online attacks against individuals and encouraged regional confrontation against others. In 2024 they launched a special action to combat cyberbullying that guides local platforms to clean up over 3.63 million pieces of illegal information to shut down over 58 thousand accounts whilst urging platforms to develop their own anti-bullying features targeting their platforms.
