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Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing resumes new user registrations, marking latest sign of a thaw in Beijing’s scrutiny of tech sector
- The Cyber Security Review Office gave Didi the green light to resume user registrations several months after concluding its investigation of the firm
- The Beijing-based company has vowed ‘to safeguard the platform’s facilities and big data, and maintain national network security’
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Coco Fengin Beijing
Didi Chuxing on Monday resumed new user registrations in the world’s largest ride-hailing market, nearly 18 months since regulators ordered a halt to customer enrolment in line with a cybersecurity review of the company.
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“With the consent of the Cyber Security Review Office, new user registrations in the Didi Chuxing app will resume immediately,” the company announced on its official account on Chinese microblogging service Weibo. “Over the past year or so, we have carefully cooperated with the cybersecurity review, taken the security issues found in the review seriously and carried out comprehensive rectification.”
The Beijing-based company also vowed to “take effective measures to safeguard the platform’s facilities and big data, and maintain national network security”.
Formed in 2020 as a joint task force of 12 Chinese ministries, the Cyber Security Review Office initiated the investigation into Didi, just two days after the company raised US$4.4 billion from its initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange under the name Didi Global on June 30, 2021.
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Why China is tightening control over cybersecurity
Why China is tightening control over cybersecurity
That marked the first time Beijing had publicly launched an investigation into a tech company on the grounds of national security, which triggered a sell-off in Chinese tech stocks in both New York and Hong Kong at the time.
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Internet watchdog the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), one of the government agencies represented in the Cyber Security Review Office, ordered the removal of Didi’s apps from the country’s various app stores in July 2021.
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