1 Introduction

By December 2023, the number of Internet users in China has reached 1.092 billion, the Internet penetration rate is 77.5%, and the number of mobile Internet users is 1.091 billion. 99.9% of them use mobile phones to access the Internet. Digital transformation enables people to deeply immerse themselves in digital language life. Unlike non digital language life, the material form, grammar system, and vocabulary system of digital language life have changed, and the online community is dynamic. Frequent incidents of online language violence pose challenges to language norms and traditional moral ethics, and netizens face the challenge of acquiring digital language abilities. The field of language policy and planning in China has been focusing on language governance for many years, exploring the governance of online language violence, language planning and governance in cyberspace, and the relationship between language governance and national governance. In the era of digital transformation, significant changes have occurred in language life, calling for a transformation in language governance. The governance of digital language life has become an important issue. The governance of digital language life is closely related to network governance and social governance, with a complex composition of participants, a sudden increase in language behavior types and contexts, and strong dynamism. Its goal is to build a harmonious language life and promote social development. The understanding and interpretation of governance and network governance in academia are still in the development stage, and there is currently no dedicated article exploring the governance of digital language life. On the basis of exploring concepts such as "governance", "network governance", and "digital governance", this article discusses the governance system and core elements of digital language life.

Interpretation of Diversity in Governance

The concept of governance originates from other disciplines, and its core lies in diverse participation and interaction mechanisms, emphasizing openness, transparency, equality, fairness, and service as its essence. Governance is a well-designed system and process aimed at ensuring accountability, transparency, responsiveness, rule of law, stability, fairness, inclusiveness, empowerment, and broad participation. Governance is different from traditional rule or government management, involving formal and informal rules, norms, agreements, practices, and institutions. There are various governance theories that explore the participants, scope, interactive communication, collaborative decision-making, coordinated actions, and other aspects of governance to achieve collective results.

Network governance closely related to language life

Explored the close connection between digital language life and network governance, and emphasized the importance of network governance in addressing language issues. Network governance is a process involving the participation of multiple stakeholders, including the government, businesses, and society, who collectively establish norms to maintain the health and security of the internet. The uniqueness of network governance lies in the complex system, decentralization, anonymity and other characteristics of the Internet, which put forward new requirements for governance, such as balancing freedom of speech and public order, network security and privacy protection. The connotation of network governance is controversial. Some people believe that the Internet should be incorporated into the existing legal system, while others believe that new laws need to be formulated to adapt to the particularity of cyberspace. The governance of the internet and the governance of the real society are intertwined, and the governance of digital language life also needs to refer to the governance of language life in the real society.

4. Governance of Digital Language Life

Deeply explored the concept, principles, subjects, objects, and processes of digital language life governance. The governance of digital language life is an extension of language governance in cyberspace, involving language users, behaviors, and products, following principles such as shared responsibility, legal governance, and ethical and moral assistance. The diversity of governance entities includes the ruling party, government departments, judicial organs, community groups, enterprises, media, and individual citizens, with the ruling party and government departments playing a leading role. The governance targets include language ontology, users, and behaviors, specifically including language forms, information content, application developers, platforms, etc. The governance process is divided into autonomous governance and alternative governance, as well as domestic governance and cross-border governance, involving both simple and complex governance types. Digital technology plays an important role in governance, achieving precise identification and automatic governance through big data and artificial intelligence software, and reducing governance costs.

5 additional discussions

Discussed the popularization of digital language life in the era of digital transformation and its impact on language form, behavior, and ideological content. Emphasis was placed on the frequent occurrence of online public opinion and the substitution of virtual gatherings for traditional social interactions. The responsibility of academia in guiding public participation in digital language life governance and enhancing the modernization of national governance capacity has been proposed. The article is based on governance theory and elaborates on the governance system of digital language life in China, including governance principles, subjects, objects, types, and processes. Two major means to achieve the goal of good governance have been identified: establishing digital language living standards and enhancing people's digital language abilities to enhance digital literacy and language governance awareness, curb language misconduct, eliminate harmful language information and dissemination behavior, and protect the interests of the country and the people.