Six authorities, including the Office of the National Work Team Against Pornographic and Illegal Publications, have recently distributed the Circular on Tightening the Administration of Online Live Services (the "Circular").
The Circular specifies, for the first time, respective duties of online live service providers, network access service providers and application stores, during the industry regulation, aiming to prompt relevant internet-based enterprises to fulfill their subject responsibilities. Further, the Circular notes that an online live service provider shall go through formalities with the competent telecommunications authority to file a record as the internet content provider (ICP); and it is required to respectively apply to each relevant department for a permit, if it engages in the telecommunications business, and livestream business for internet news information, online performance, and online visual-audio programs, and go through formalities with the local public security organ with jurisdiction to file a record in accordance with relevant provisions, within 30 days once the live services have been rolled out on the internet. Furthermore, the Circular calls for efforts to implement the user's real name system, intensify administration of online anchors, establish the blacklist system for online anchors, optimize the system of watching and censoring livestreamed content for regulatory purposes, and improve measures to better respond to harmful content.