On January 4th, 2022, the regulation “Provisions on the Management of Algorithmic Recommendations in Internet Information Services” was adopted by China. This text will enter into force on March 1st. It follows an initial draft presented by China’s Cyberspace Administration in August 2021 and it seeks to regulate algorithms, especially those that will be employed for ‘recommendation’ purposes such as those used in search filters, social media, online stores, content services or gig work platforms.

Nowadays, data and technologies are not only used to monitor people but also to motivate, influence or shape their decisions online. This paper defines the concept of Datapulation and discuss its effects on privacy, human rights and democracy