The regulations are actually part of a campaign which is run by the Cyberspace Administration of China. Its aim is to increase management of the country’s tech companies.

Application providers will be expected to carry out a security assessment before trying to roll out new things such as applications, features, or technologies if some of these are capable of influencing the public.

The CAC did not point out any specific applications.

All the rules which have been proposed will be applied to “text, picture, voice, video, and other information production”. The regulator said also that the rules will be implemented in functions such as instant messaging, livestreaming, forum communities, etc.

Mobile app providers are not allowed to conduct activities that put the national security in danger. News applications must take licenses which give them allowance to publish news.

The rules will take effect in February-March.