China and the internet
3 March 2006
The Chinese government has introduced sweeping new regulations aimed at tightening control of news content on the internet. The new measures, announced in September, allow only healthy and civilised news and information that is beneficial to the quality of the nation.
The Chinese Information Ministry stated that its aim was to standardize the management of news and information but commentators believe that the vaguely worded regulations are aimed at deterring bloggers from producing online diaries that might contain criticism of the regime. Its believed that the government is also keen to stamp out an emerging culture of unofficial news sites with offenders facing severe punishments or shutdown.
At the same time the authorities have closed thousands of cyber cafes - the most common way for Chinese users to access the internet - in a bid to crack down on dissent. Reports also state that internet cafes have installed surveillance cameras and are requiring customers to register using identity cards in a move to link usernames to real identities.
Internet use in China has burgeoned in recent years with an estimated 100 million citizens regularly logging on and increasing by almost 20% per year, making China second only to the US in terms of the number of internet users. But whilst the government has been keen to exploit the commercial benefits of the internet it has sought to tightly control a powerful tool in the hands of dissident groups such as Falun Gong and pro-democracy campaigners.
A recent study by Harvard University found that government filtering of internet content was particularly subtle and sophisticated with, for example, filters able to block references to Tibetan independence without blocking all references to Tibet.
Western technology companies and service providers seeking to capitalize on Chinas internet growth face significant public relations challenges in the current climate. Yahoo! faced criticism earlier this year when its Hong Kong subsidiary provided Chinese authorities with information leading to the imprisonment of dissident journalist Shi Tao.