The Facts
China's cyberspace regulator, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), issued draft rules on Tuesday to oversee the security management of facial recognition technology in the country.
The draft policy would restrict businesses' use of the technology, requiring companies to obtain individual consent before using facial recognition and ensure it's used only for specific purposes.
The Spin
Pro-China narrative
China is a world leader in monitoring technology and its vast network of CCTV cameras, if effectively enforced, is an invaluable tool to enhance public security. Nevertheless, the latest proposal shows that Beijing also takes privacy and bias concerns seriously, and is stepping up efforts to establish more defined boundaries for the technology's usage.
Anti-China narrative
China is certainly a world leader in the mass surveillance of its people, and these new guidelines are nothing but window dressing. The Chinese government helms a massive, invasive surveillance program that monitors every aspect of everyday life, with facial recognition restrictions doing little to curtail the surveillance regime in the country. These new measures are fooling nobody.
