Recently, extreme rainfall has hit Northeast China, North China, Huanghuai and other regions, causing residential entrapment, casualties and other disasters in multiple areas. Rescue forces from across the country have assembled rapidly, rushed to the frontline for flood prevention and disaster relief, and fully engaged in disaster rescue work. At this critical moment when the whole nation unites as one to fight floods and disasters, individual internet users fabricate and disseminate false disaster-related information and stir up regional confrontation and discrimination. Such behaviors have seriously disrupted online public opinion order and hindered flood fighting and disaster relief efforts.

To further purify the online environment, standardize network order, uphold the positive online atmosphere of national solidarity, disaster relief and post-disaster recovery, fully protect people’s lives and property, and maintain overall social stability, and to encourage everyone to become participants and contributors to flood prevention and disaster relief, we hereby issue the following initiative:

I. Consciously Refuse the Dissemination of Illegal and Harmful Online Information

1. Resolutely resist illegal and harmful information. Do not create, believe in or spread illegal, harmful and negative information related to flood prevention and disaster relief. Refuse to spread rumors or fan disputes. Do not arbitrarily disseminate unsubstantiated reports, privacy disclosure, personal attacks and other inappropriate remarks with no verified sources or evidence.

2. Strictly manage information release accounts. Strengthen manual review and qualification authentication of online accounts. Prevent impersonation of Party and government organs, military authorities, news media and government institutional accounts. Strictly regulate self-media accounts that produce professional content without valid qualifications. It is prohibited to manipulate self-media account matrices to publish and disseminate illegal and negative information concerning flood disasters and relief work.

3. Standardize information release content. Users shall mark the source of news information in accordance with relevant regulations; clearly indicate the shooting time and location for self-shot content; label AI-generated content accordingly; specify the occurrence time and background when reposting past news; add fictitious creation labels for speculative and adapted content. Platforms will mark disputed or rumor information with corresponding labels, and take regulatory measures including traffic restriction, rumor refutation and account mute in accordance with rules.

II. Adopt a Zero-tolerance Policy Against Illegal and Harmful Information

4. Enhance awareness of online civilization. Establish correct online ethics, actively resist and report various online illegal and uncivilized behaviors, firmly combat cyber crimes, and effectively safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the state, society, collectives and individuals.

5. Strengthen positive public opinion guidance. Improve management mechanisms for follower volume and profit access via platform conventions and user agreements. For accounts in violation of regulations, disciplinary measures including mute, restriction or prohibition of new followers, and full follower clearance will be imposed as appropriate. User accounts that maliciously hype flood prevention hot topics and sensitive incidents through multi-account linkage for marketing purposes will have their profit access revoked or permanently prohibited.

6. Foster a healthy online ecosystem. Clearly mark the affiliated MCN institutions of self-media accounts. For MCN institutions that manipulate signed accounts for coordinated hype and commit repeated violations, punitive measures including profit access restriction, service limitation and platform removal will be implemented.

III. Mobilize and Leverage Positive Energy of Online Platforms

7. Improve the supervision and reporting mechanism. Encourage users to participate in platform content governance, collect and report illegal and harmful information, identify and expose rumors and false content, provide relevant clues to regulatory authorities, and cooperate with investigations and disposal to eliminate adverse impacts to the maximum extent.

8. Assist with public rescue requests. Proactively collect online rescue demands from the public, timely report relevant clues to competent authorities, and cooperate with official disaster relief work under the overall coordination of local Party committees and governments.

9. Expose illegal and criminal cases resolutely. Intensify the exposure and disposal of rule-breaking users and accounts. Launch special warning education columns to release typical violation cases regularly, reminding all users to strictly abide by national laws and regulations, comply with platform conventions and service agreements, and strengthen self-discipline.