The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology replied to the ＂Proposal on Spam SMS Governance＂

　　Reply to Proposal No.1001 of the Fourth Session of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference

　　Member Xu Jingkun:

　　Your proposal on spam message management has been received, and our reply is as follows:

　　For a long time, short message service has become an important means of communication because of its popularity, convenience and cheapness, and has played an important role in modern production and life. However, as you said, some units or individuals abuse SMS business for commercial marketing in violation of regulations, which affects the normal life order of the people and infringes on the legitimate rights and interests of telecom users. Your analysis of the difficulties and problems faced by the spam message management work, as well as the relevant measures and suggestions, our department agrees very much and has been carrying out related work.

　　First, the work carried out and the effectiveness of governance

　　(1) Continue to focus on rectification and improve the governance system. Since 2008, our department has organized and carried out special actions for spam message management for many times, and successively issued the Notice on the Work Plan for the Special Action for Spam Message Management, the Notice on Organizing the Special Action for the Clean-up and Rectification of Port-type SMS Group-sending Business, and the Work Plan for the Special Action for Deep Spam Message Management, etc., and gradually established and improved the spam message management system from the aspects of improving the policy system, strengthening administrative supervision, upgrading technical means, unblocking complaint channels, and increasing illegal disposal, and achieved phased results.

　　(two) improve the legal basis, clear legal responsibility. Our department attaches great importance to the construction of relevant legal system. First, the Regulations on the Management of Communication Short Message Service and the Regulations on the Protection of Personal Information of Telecommunications and Internet Users were issued to further standardize the behaviors and safeguard measures of commercial short message sending, and the collection and use of users’ personal information by telecommunications and Internet enterprises. The second is to promote the "Advertising Law" and "E-commerce Law" to stipulate the rules for the governance of junk electronic information, and provide a superior legal basis for various industries to regulate related behaviors. Third, it attaches great importance to the promulgation and implementation of the Civil Code, and has organized the whole industry to seriously study and consciously abide by the relevant provisions of the "Peace Right" for many times, and guided relevant enterprises to regard it as the basic operating principle.

　　(3) Strengthen supervision and law enforcement and compact the main responsibility. Based on the responsibility of industry management, our department grasps the key point of spam management, and continuously urges enterprises to implement the main responsibility through law enforcement accountability. First, insist on issuing the Bulletin on the Management of Spam Information every quarter, inform the whole industry of enterprises with outstanding spam complaints, implement problem list management, urge rectification, and promote a virtuous circle of the mechanism of "discovery, notification and disposal". The second is to comprehensively use the "double random and open" inspection, complaint reporting and other mechanisms to standardize the market order of SMS services. In 2020, a total of 483 enterprises (times) were notified, interviewed and punished, and credit punishment was implemented according to law. The third is to urge basic telecommunications enterprises to strengthen access management. In 2020, 6,861 illegal SMS ports such as "106" will be shut down, and 35 accountability assessments (times) such as informed criticism, KPI deduction and performance deduction will be implemented. Basic telecommunications enterprises will become the normal state of governance.

　　Second, the difficult problems of governance and targeted measures

　　Although the management of spam messages has achieved phased results, as you said, due to the complicated social causes of spam messages, it is difficult to manage them, and problems such as source management, resource management and law enforcement are still outstanding. In this regard, our department has also actively taken a series of targeted measures.

　　(1) Adhere to departmental linkage and promote source governance. In view of the cross-industry, multi-link and difficult traceability of commercial marketing short messages, our department actively promotes the establishment of a collaborative supervision and governance mechanism. First, use departmental linkage to strengthen source governance and enhance the awareness of joint management of all departments. Insist on informing all departments of the clues of spam complaints in the corresponding industries every quarter, and promote them to dispose of the source enterprises. In 2020, a total of 4 batches of 38,000 problem clues were handed over to the General Administration of Market Supervision, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Public Security and other departments, and 61 enterprises with serious problems were seriously dealt with by various departments through special inspections, interviews and education. The second is to use public opinion supervision to promote self-discipline at the source and enhance the willingness of enterprises to abide by the law. Adhere to the quarterly release of the "inventory of spam complaints" to the society, expose industries and typical enterprises with serious spam problems, and give full play to the binding role of public opinion. In 2020, 64 enterprises (times) with serious spam messages such as retail sales promotion and loan financing were exposed.

　　(2) Focus on port specifications and control resource management. In view of the problems related to the access management of short message ports, our department has continuously standardized the resource management and supervised the basic telecommunications enterprises to ensure the communication resources. The first is to compact the responsibility of the basic telecommunications enterprises to access the main body. Organize it to comprehensively investigate the access of SMS ports, improve the ability of pre-audit and in-process prevention, prohibit providing access convenience for subletting ports, and increase the control of illegal sending behaviors in key areas such as commercial marketing. In 2020, there will be 40 short message port enterprises (times) with serious notification, interview and punishment problems and 62 basic telecommunications enterprises (times) providing access for them. The second is regular administrative guidance to promote industry self-discipline. Since the beginning of this year, a quarterly symposium system for spam control has been established, and a symposium on compliance management of port SMS services has been held on a special topic to clarify the requirements of port SMS specifications and guide relevant enterprises to consciously abide by the law.

　　(3) Comprehensive law enforcement supervision to enhance the effectiveness of accountability. In view of the problems of light administrative punishment and low effectiveness, our department comprehensively uses various means to give full play to the binding role of credit management, notification and assessment, and enhance the deterrent effect of supervision. First, make good use of credit management, incorporate the law enforcement results of spam message management into the list of bad business operations and dishonesty in telecommunications business according to law, and publicize it to the public, so as to realize "one place is illegal and limited everywhere" in the industry and strengthen the actual effect of comprehensive management. The second is to make good use of the notification assessment, urge the basic telecommunications enterprises to strengthen internal management, and strengthen the sense of corporate responsibility through accountability.

　　Iii. Answers to your suggestions

　　The measures and suggestions you put forward have important reference value for the follow-up spam control work. I will combine the actual research and adoption, continue to do a good job in spam management, and promote the fundamental solution to the problem of spam messages disturbing the people.

　　(1) Defining the responsibilities and obligations of basic telecommunications enterprises. Our department distinguishes the links of short message access, sending, production and publishing according to law, and defines the legal responsibilities of basic telecom enterprises, short message service providers (short message port enterprises) and short message content providers (merchants) accordingly. First, the basic telecommunications enterprises are responsible for the access of short message ports, and assume the responsibility for the control of access resources according to the principle of "whoever accesses". They must establish and improve relevant management systems and technical means before, during and after the event, provide access services according to laws and regulations, strengthen the management of communication resources, and prevent illegal use. Second, short message port enterprises are responsible for sending related short messages, and assume the responsibility of sending management and port use according to the principle of "whoever sends it". They must establish a short message sending management system and an early warning and monitoring mechanism, and prevent short message content providers from sending commercial short messages in violation of regulations through standardized management, technical means and contractual agreements. Third, short message content providers such as merchants are responsible for the production and release of related short messages, and assume the responsibility of content source management according to the principle of "whoever produces, publishes and is responsible", and should strictly abide by laws and regulations such as the Advertising Law, the Electronic Commerce Law and the Civil Code, as well as the management requirements of this industry.

　　(2) Penalties for sending spam messages on the online shopping platform. Online shopping platform should bear the main management responsibility for the problem of disturbing people by merchants’ marketing short messages. First, some platforms did not fully verify users’ wishes, and "default" registered users agreed to send a large number of marketing short messages directly, especially during the peak marketing periods such as "618" and "double 11", which aggravated the flood of spam messages. Second, some platforms abuse user information to accurately send marketing short messages due to problems such as imperfect rules for collecting and using user information and inadequate management implementation. In this regard, our department has always attached great importance to it. For example, on the eve of "6.18" this year, timely monitoring and early warning were held, and an administrative guidance meeting was held to require e-commerce platform enterprises to standardize the sending behavior of marketing short messages, which attracted the attention of mainstream media, gained wide support from the public, and promoted industry self-discipline. In the follow-up, our department will continue to make comprehensive policies, explore long-term management mechanisms, standardize market order, and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of users.

　　(three) on improving the "Regulations" on the management of communication short message service fine limit. Since its release in 2015, the Regulations on the Management of Communication Short Message Service has played a positive role in regulating spam messages and promoting the healthy development of the market. However, with the great changes in the governance situation, it is necessary to improve the top-level design of the spam governance system, adjust and supplement relevant regulations, and further promote the governance work according to law. Accordingly, our department is revising the "Regulations on the Management of Communication Short Message Service". As a departmental regulation, the amount of the fine is mainly based on the provisions of the Administrative Punishment Law and other superior laws. If there is illegal income, the fine shall not exceed 3 times of the illegal income, but the maximum shall not exceed 30,000 yuan; If there is no illegal income, the fine shall not exceed 10 thousand yuan. If the state adjusts the fine limits stipulated in the Administrative Punishment Law and other superior laws, the Ministry will also adjust the fine limits of relevant regulations according to law.

　　To sum up, our department will continue to practice the people-centered development idea in combination with the new situation and new requirements, adhere to the normalized management of spam messages, and comprehensively use legal, administrative and technical means to establish and improve a long-term mechanism for spam messages, resolutely protect the peaceful life of the people and create a clear information and communication environment.

　　Thank you for your concern and support for the management of spam messages, and welcome to continue to put forward valuable opinions and suggestions on the work of our department.

　　Ministry of Industry and Information Technology

　　August 3, 2021