INTERNATIONAL_ The Cybersecurity Administration of China (CAC) has announced new regulations to control the gaming and information technology sectors.
Accordingly, game companies that have more than 1 million players and plan to put shares on foreign exchanges starting February 15, 2022 will have to undergo a special cybersecurity test.
It is increasingly difficult for Chinese companies to list abroad
“Listing on a stock exchange can lead to the fact that critical information infrastructure, sensitive data or large amounts of personal data will be exposed, controlled, and controlled by foreign governments. or used for malicious purposes” – a statement from the regulator said.
In addition, the CAC announced the introduction of new rules to govern recommendation selection algorithms in order to increase control over media using this technology when disseminating information from March 1, 2022.
These changes will also allow users to turn off the recommendation engine. The announced changes in the regulation of the gaming sector are expected to affect many companies, such as ByteDance and Alibaba Group. Representatives of the companies mentioned declined to comment on the matter.
The announced changes are the latest step on the way to tightening control by Chinese regulators over games, technology and a number of other areas.
More game companies face more challenges when listing outside of China
It remains unclear whether the new rules will apply to companies that plan to list on the Hong Kong stock exchange. This is probably not going to happen, as the authorities consider Hong Kong to be part of China but only applies to foreign markets such as Europe and the US.
In fact, as of August 2018, 8 ministries and committees including the Ministry of Education and the National Health Commission of China have jointly issued the Implementation Plan for the Comprehensive Prevention and Control of Myopia in Children. and teenagers and includes “control of the number of new online game products”. Therefore, the policy on controlling the game industry has since been implemented more strictly.
