[Data security] Didi's rectification is coming to an end, and mainland platform supervision still has follow-up

Didi's sky-high fine has settled.

Last Thursday (July 21), the Cyberspace Administration of China imposed a fine of RMB 8.026 billion on Didi Global Co., Ltd., and imposed a fine of RMB 100 on Didi Global Co., Ltd. Chairman and CEO Cheng Wei and President Liu Qing. million in fines.

In answering reporters' questions, the Cyberspace Administration of China clearly listed 16 illegal facts about Didi Chuxing.

This is another huge fine issued by Chinese regulators to large Internet companies. The amount is only 18.228 billion yuan issued to Alibaba in April 2021.

According to the characterization of the regulatory authorities, Didi Global has violated the laws and regulations of the "Cyber ​​Security Law", "Data Security Law" and "Personal Information Protection Law".

Judging from the wording of the Cyberspace Administration of China, "refusal to fulfill the clear requirements of the regulatory authorities, violating the law, maliciously evading supervision", and "operating illegally and illegally bringing serious security risks to the security of the country's key information infrastructure and data security" are all serious accusation.

The amount of fine of 8.026 billion set a record of fines by the Cyberspace Administration of China.

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The fines issued by the Cyberspace Administration of China were as high as 8.026 billion yuan.

That's 4.6 percent of Didi's previous year's turnover of 173.8 billion yuan.

Didi's relevant administrative penalty decision has not been made public, so it is impossible to know the specific legal provisions on which the Cyberspace Administration of China made the administrative penalty.

However, from Article 66 of the Personal Information Protection Law (for serious violations, a maximum fine of less than 50 million yuan or a fine of less than 5% of the previous year's turnover) can be seen. Serious violations of information have been subject to the highest administrative penalty of "five percent of turnover".

As for when Didi's products will be available on the shelves, the official still has not given an answer.

Since Didi cooperated with the investigation in July 2021, all products have been removed from the shelves for more than a year. This time cost is also a bitter fruit that Didi cannot swallow.

On April 16 this year, Didi announced the launch of the voluntary delisting process of U.S. stocks, and said that it would not apply for listing on any exchange until the delisting was completed.

On the day of the announcement, Didi’s market value fell to $11.116 billion, a drop of more than $50 billion from the time it went public.

In recent years, China's financial regulators have conducted several rounds of window guidance to guide companies that have already listed in the United States or are planning to go public in the United States to return to the mainland or list in Hong Kong.

It is only a matter of time before Didi goes public in Hong Kong.

The Mainland’s Data Security Law, which was implemented last year, requires that organizations and individuals in China shall not provide any data stored in China to any foreign judicial department or foreign law enforcement agency; the Cyberspace Administration of China has since demanded that the Internet holds the personal information of more than 1 million users. Platform operators must apply for a security review when listing abroad, and government departments will assess the "risk of critical information infrastructure, core data, important data or a large amount of personal data being influenced, controlled, or maliciously used by foreign governments."

Today's punishment of Didi should be regarded as a landmark event in the "rectification" of platform companies in the past two years.

And once Didi returns to the Hong Kong stock IPO "naturally", it will be a sample demonstration of the return of Chinese stocks.

The disposal of Didi will also promote the compliance governance of Internet companies for the protection of users' personal information.

(Reuters)

Secondly, the disposal of Didi will also promote the compliance governance of Internet companies for the protection of users' personal information.

According to the information released by the Cyberspace Administration of China, Didi has 16 illegal facts, and "excessive collection of user information" is one of the key points.

Most of these excessively collected user information has nothing to do with taxi-hailing behavior, but Didi can analyze and judge users’ online behavior through this information, which is obviously beyond the reasonable scope and infringes on users’ personal rights and interests.

On September 17 last year, nine departments including the Cyberspace Administration of China issued the "Guiding Opinions on Strengthening the Comprehensive Governance of Internet Information Service Algorithms", proposing to "use about three years to gradually establish algorithms with a sound governance mechanism, a perfect supervision system, and a standardized algorithm ecosystem. Comprehensive Security Governance Pattern".

The punishment against Didi this time can also be regarded as the first order for algorithm punishment to a certain extent, and relevant regulations are believed to be introduced one after another.

Did the difficulties really begin after Didi's voluntary delisting of US stocks?

“Didi” went public in the United States to rewrite the rules of the IPO game, and the concept stocks ushered in a regulatory storm

For details, please read the 327th issue of "Hong Kong 01" Electronic Weekly Newsletter (July 25, 2022) "