China takes step to deal with phone-clogging spam   

工信部拟出新规治垃圾短信

令用户不胜其烦的广告信息有望得到根除。昨天，国务院法制办公室发布消息称，工信部已起草了《通信短信息服务管理规定(征求意见稿)》，其中明确规定未经用户许可，任何组织和个人不得向其发送商业短信息，这一规定也将成为治理垃圾短信现象的政策依据。[查看全文]

(ECNS) – China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) on Tuesday began soliciting public opinion on a draft regulation against rampant spam messages clogging mobile phones, local media reported.

All organizations or individuals are prohibited from sending commercial messages without the receiver's consent, and senders should stop sending messages once receivers tell them to, the draft said.

Although the draft doesn't mention the word "spam message," over 90 percent of those polled in a recent survey agreed that commercial messages are spam, the Southern Metropolis Daily said.

In a random survey conducted by the newspaper, 47 of 50 respondents said they were bothered by such messages.

The draft also demands that senders inform receivers about content and expiration dates, as well as offer free and convenient ways for people to reject spam messages.

The draft also notes that those who violate the regulation would be fined from 10,000 yuan ($1,635) to 30,000 yuan ($4,908).

Besides SMS, commercial messages also include voice and image messages sent via social networking services to mobile phones, according to the draft.

The regulation may take effect next year, according to the Beijing Times.

Fu Liang, an expert on the telecom industry, said it is the country's first regulation targeting commercial messages, but it lags far behind countries like South Korea and Singapore.