Seeing ‘red’ over mobile spam

A Guangzhou mobile user set off a minor brouhaha last week when he accidentally uncovered the existence of an exclusive “do-not-spam” list for senior officials.

The user, infuriated by the ads clogging his mobile phone, had sued his wireless operator. The operator's lawyer – presumably thinking it would make the case go away - advised him he’d been placed on the ‘red list’ and wouldn’t have to worry about receiving any more spam.

Naturally, the opposite occurred. Bulletin boards lit up with users teeing off over the revelation of yet another perk for cosseted officials.

While everyone knows about internet blacklists, this was the first anyone had heard of a red list, which supposedly is for provincial governors and above, according the Guangzhou Daily and the Peoples Daily Online.

People’s Daily Online, which knows about these things, believed the list had been introduced quite recently, possibly after the crackdown on the sex trade in Dongguan last year, in which a local official complained publicly about SMS ads for sex services being sent to senior leaders.

In any case, the underlying problem is the attitude of the operators, for whom mobile spam is an irresistible source of traffic, although officially a problem too hard to solve, as well as the weak regulatory environment: after more than three decades of trying, China still lacks a telecom law. The operators are administered directly by MIIT regulations.