Security Obligations Of Network Service Providers

Driven by science and technology,human society has undergone rapid changes,especially the birth of the Internet,which makes people’s work and life go thousands of miles a day.Authoritative data show that by 2020,the number of Internet users in China has accounted for 70.4% of the total number of people,and the total number of websites has reached 4.43 million.Based on such a huge number of Internet users and the total number of websites,it is obvious that the Internet has penetrated into all aspects of public life.We use websites for shopping and entertainment,watch short videos and live broadcasts,and wechat and live broadcasts for work.It can be seen that public life has a very close relationship with the Internet,which has brought great convenience to modern people’s life.Especially in the past two years,the epidemic has occurred frequently,and the network dividend has appeared again.Network office,video conference and other office forms have become the necessary way of public work.However,the dual nature of things remains unchanged.While the network has become an indispensable part of the public’s work and life and brought huge network dividends,a few criminals use the network to carry out illegal and criminal activities,which has brought economic losses to the public and infringed on the national interests.Network not only brings convenience to public work,but also provides convenience for illegal and criminal acts.Thus,while enjoying the convenience brought by the Internet,the public has also been infringed by the omissions of network security problems.In the network security law of the People’s Republic of China(hereinafter referred to as the network security law),the concept of network security is defined in detail,and network security is divided into network information security and network operation security.The legal liability of network service providers should be regulated from the legal level.When the legitimate rights and interests of network users are infringed,network users pay attention to how to compensate the damaged rights and interests,rather than punish the infringer.At this time,the security obligation of network service providers has become a new research topic in front of legal scholars.Article 37 of the original tort liability law expounds in great detail the security obligations undertaken by the operators and managers of traditional physical space.However,the provisions on network service providers who are both operators and managers of cyberspace are regulated in Article 36 of the original tort liability law.The legal basis of Article 36 is the "safe haven principle" of the United States,which is the exemption system of network service providers and more the protection of the interests of network service providers.However,with the development of network technology,the applicability of this rule in judicial practice is gradually decreasing.Although the civil code issued in 2021 has expanded the infringement of network service providers from one article to four articles,its essence has not changed.The concept of network society has not been taken into account,and it is still defined from the perspective of traditional infringement.In this paper,the author puts cyberspace and physical space in the same position.It is believed that although cyberspace is a virtual space,because the public’s work and life have been widely carried out,it is only the dimension of behavior.One is the visible and tangible physical space,and the other is the invisible but real virtual space.As the creator of virtual space,the manager of operation and the winner of profit,network service providers should bear the obligation of security disclosure as physical space operation.However,virtual space is different from physical space after all.I hope that through the analysis of this paper,we can have a more detailed understanding of the security obligations of network service providers and play a role in promoting China’s network legislation.