Rapid growth seen in social media disputes, copyrights: Internet court

A Beijing court said on Tuesday that it has seen a rapid growth in disputes related to social media platforms since its establishment, and most of the cases focused on copyright infringement.

From Sept 9, 2018 to Monday, the Beijing Internet Court heard more than 102,000 cases, of which, 23,781 involved social media services, according to court statistics.

The number of cases concerning social media platforms increased to 10,424 in 2020 from 458 between September and December 2018, thanked to the promotion of internet economy and innovation development, the court said, adding about 87 percent of the total related to copyright infringements.

Some platforms were found lacking strict reviews to contents uploaded online. Some were also discovered having illegally or excessively collect users' personal information, it said.

Zhang Wen, president of the court, said they have intensified legal research relating to some hot online services and strengthened protection on intellectual property rights in a few new businesses, such as short videos, online games and online education. While regulating online transactions and internet industrial development in a healthy manner, "we'll concentrate more on protection of personal rights in cyberspace, encourage digital innovation and give timely response to rules on cutting-edge aspects, including those on online platform governance, algorithms and block chain," she added.