Xi urges platforms, netizens to play positive role in promoting cyberspace

President Xi Jinping has called for extensively pooling positive forces and the strength of kindness and making joint efforts to create a better cyberspace.

He made the remark in a congratulatory letter sent to the first China Internet Civilization Conference on Friday.

In his letter, Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, said that internet civilization is a major component of social etiquette and civility under new circumstances and a key area for enhancing China's strength in cyberspace.

China in recent years has vigorously enriched content on the internet, advocated new and healthy trends, deepened governance over internet ecology and achieved notable achievements in the construction of internet civilization, Xi said.

Stressing the coordination of development and governance, Xi urged Party committees and governments at all levels to shoulder their responsibilities, and internet platforms, social organizations and netizens to play a positive role in jointly promoting civilized accessibility of the internet as well as shaping and purifying cyberspace with new trends in the new era in order to foster a strong spiritual force.

Huang Kunming, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, read out Xi's letter and urged the attendees and relevant departments to faithfully implement Xi's instructions.

Huang called for vigorously fostering and upholding core socialist values, promoting civilized concepts and fostering civilized manners on the internet in order to create a healthy cyberspace and foster patriotism, morality and internet civility among users, particularly teenagers.

Calling the construction of internet civilization a systematic project, Huang underscored the important responsibilities that regulators, industry players, platforms and internet users all share to jointly build a good and sustainable cyberspace environment.

In September, the general offices of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued a document on strengthening internet civilization construction. China has also continued to improve legal protections of internet civilization in recent years and introduced multiple laws and regulations, such as the Cybersecurity Law, the Data Security Law and the Personal Information Protection Law.

The one-day conference, with the theme of "Gather strength for good deeds, jointly build internet civilization", was held in Beijing and was jointly hosted by the Office of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission, the Central Commission for Guiding Cultural and Ethical Progress, the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee and the Beijing Municipal People's Government.

The event consisted of one main forum and seven sub-forums, covering topics such as online content construction, challenges and responses in internet ecological governance, internet rule of law, and internet civilization among youth.