Source: Xinhua.
Tencent recently released an update on its WeChat external link content management rules, announcing that links can now be opened directly in one-to-one chats; that direct access to e-commerce external links will be trialled in group chats; and that a user-choice mode with external link management functions is planned for later.
For a long time, blocking external links and incompatible payment methods were standard tactics for some internet companies building their competitive moats, raising the cost of information transactions, hurting user experience, damaging user rights and disturbing market order. In July, MIIT launched a six-month special rectification of the internet industry, with blocking of website links as one of the priorities. In September, MIIT business departments held an administrative guidance meeting setting specific regulatory requirements on platforms blocking each other’s links. This provides a good environment for small and medium enterprises to innovate and helps them cut operating costs; for consumers, it makes internet services more convenient.
At present, most platforms have lifted link blocking, but incompatibilities remain. Some have only trialled opening e-commerce links while short-video links cannot be shared directly, and platform mobile payments still nudge users into a choose-one-of-two incompatibility.
Interconnection is the inevitable choice and overall trend of high-quality development in the internet industry. As data traffic approaches its limits, future data dividends will have to come from continuously mining the value of data, and tearing down abnormal blocking benefits everyone. The industry’s common development should not be closed off but open and inclusive; not a solo performance but a chorus in harmony. Internet platforms, while holding the security line, should actively implement the requirements of the relevant authorities, not grant themselves selective preferential treatment, not abnormally block or push information from related parties, and move toward other platforms. The authorities, for their part, must respond to each new tactic, strengthen supervision, punish unfair competition such as malicious link blocking and malicious incompatibility according to law, and standardise procedural rules to form transparent, rule-based platform opening policies, creating an interlinked, open, orderly market environment and pushing the industry toward regulated, healthy, high-quality development.
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