A Study on Criminal Liability of Network Platforms in the Crime of Aiding Information‑Network Criminal Activities

DOI: https://doi.org/10.62517/jel.202614424

Author(s)

Sihua Wang

Affiliation(s)

Faculty of Law, Macau University of Science and Technology, Macao, China

Abstract

The Amendment (IX) to the Criminal Law established the Crime of Aiding Information‑Network Criminal Activities to address industrialized cyber‑crimes that traditional complicity theory struggles to regulate. Network platforms, core digital‑society carriers, are frequently misused by cyber grey‑and‑black industries. Current judicial practice faces problems including the crime’s pocket‑crime expansion, generalized presumption of platforms’ “knowledge”, and flawed unit‑liability mechanisms, leading to inconsistent rulings. This paper reviews mainstream theories of the crime and analyzes practical dilemmas in platform criminal‑liability imputation. It distinguishes this offence from the Crime of Refusing to Perform Obligations for Information‑Network Security Management. To balance cyber‑crime crackdown and healthy digital‑industry growth, it suggests refining the judicial test for “knowledge”, clarifying offence boundaries, setting rules for neutral assisting conduct, improving unit‑crime rules, and optimizing administrative‑criminal linkage.

Keywords

Crime of Aiding Information‑Network Criminal Activities; Network Platform; Knowledge; Neutral Assisting Conduct; Unit Criminal Liability

References

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