CyberLaw Blog

Archive for the ‘China’ Category

CN – China warns Google to comply with censorship laws (BBC)
China’s top internet official has warned that Google will ‘pay the consequences’ if it continues to go against Chinese law. Minister of Industry and Information Technology Li Yizhong was speaking at China’s annual legislation session. Google announced in January that it would no longer comply with China’s internet censorship laws. It warned that it may shut down google.cn because of censorship and a hacking attack on the portal. See also Google to shut China search engine (FT). Google has drawn up detailed plans for the closure of its Chinese search engine and is now ‘99.9 per cent’ certain to go ahead as talks over censorship with the Chinese authorities have reached an apparent impasse.

(Via QuickLinks Update.)

CN – China introduces tougher measures to combat providers of online porn: (Xinhua)
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has pledged fresh measures to fight offensive content transmitted by mobile phones and websites. China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom, the country’s three mobile carriers, have been required to examine the quality of their business partners. The MIIT also asked the Internet service providers to supervise the content of websites and close irregular websites.

(Via QuickLinks Update.)

China throws rotten tomatoes at IMDb: “

Online movie bible blocked

China this week appears to have blocked access to the Internet Movie Database (IMDb.com), giving rise to speculation that it is stepping up its war on websites that allow user-generated content.…

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(Via The Register – Public Sector.)

China returns fire against US in Google-war: China inflamed the international row with America over cyber-attacks on Google yesterday, denouncing Hillary Clinton’s criticism of the country’s internet curbs as ‘information imperialism’.

(Via Tech and Web from Times Online.)

Hillary Clinton guards internet freedom in attack on China’s new ‘Berlin Wall’: Hillary Clinton has deepened a row over freedom of expression in China by warning Beijing that its alleged attack on Google would have ‘consequences’ and comparing its censorship of the internet to the Berlin Wall.

(Via Tech and Web from Times Online.)

CN – Timeline: China and net censorship: (BBC)
As Google considers withdrawing from China, the BBC looks at the highs and lows of internet access and freedom in the most populous country in the world.

(Via QuickLinks Update.)

Chinese Censorship Equals Protectionism – WSJ.com: “Chinese Censorship Equals Protectionism
Freedom of speech violations aside, Beijing may also be violating its WTO obligations.

WSJ, 06 January, 2010

By FREDRIK ERIXON AND HOSUK LEE-MAKIYAMA

Beijing’s methods to censor the Internet are becoming ever more repressive. In recent weeks, at least 700 Web sites seem to have been shut down or blocked—on top of tens of thousands of foreign online services that already were inaccessible. Individuals have been banned from registering new domain names in China, and authorities are turning the heat up on existing domains. This is correctly viewed as a major free-speech problem, but that’s only part of the damage Beijing is doing. Blocking the Internet blocks commerce and trade, and China’s latest moves may well run afoul of its World Trade Organization commitments.

China has the highest number of online users in the world with 300 million, surpassing even the United States. That makes it among the most appealing markets for foreign technology companies. The new censorship drive fences off this market and reserves it only for government-registered actors that are politically reliable in the eyes of Beijing. The regulations apply just as much to Web sites outside China, which must now apply for a license from Chinese authorities to avoid being blocked.

This is the latest and most vigorous manifestation of an old phenomenon. For more than a decade, the so-called Great Firewall of China has restricted access to many common media sites and online services from abroad, especially search engines and user-generated content such as blogs, Twitter, YouTube or photo-sharing site Flickr. Now, though, it’s reaching a point where the measures are attacking core business and revenues. Several international Web sites—like the Chinese and English versions of search engines Google and Bing, or email service providers Gmail and Hotmail—have been shut down by the authorities without much warning.

Beyond Web censorship, regulatory hurdles on technology are an increasing problem throughout China’s economy. The importation of WiFi-equipped phones, routers and laptops capable of wirelessly surfing the Internet is forbidden; they feature encryption technologies that make eavesdropping more difficult for the authorities. Partly for this reason, Apple’s iPhone came to China only in November, two years after it hit the rest of the world, and then without its signature WiFi capability.

Mobile applications are now also subject to censorship; for instance, China Mobile has stopped all sales of paid content until further notice. This is a market already worth 200 million yuan ($29 million) and should be steadily growing as smart phones like the iPhone and Blackberry start to gain traction. Meanwhile, Beijing attempted last July to force all manufacturers to install filtering software and a potential spyware program called Green Dam Youth Escort on computers shipped to China. This ostensibly was to block access to pornography, but could have made it easier for authorities to track politically sensitive communications, too. That proposal was withdrawn but is soon likely to resurface.

Political censorship is the most obvious motive underpinning all these actions, but there is another: Online censorship has become a tool of industrial policy, effectively discriminating against foreign suppliers. The Chinese search engine Baidu has been untouched by the recent crackdown, despite producing similar search results to the blocked Google and Bing Web sites. There also have been reports that users entering Google’s address in their browsers have been automatically rerouted to Baidu. Licensing requirements for Web sites help Beijing control the market share of companies like smaller private-sector travel agents or Internet-telephony companies like Skype that compete with larger Chinese companies with strong relationships to Beijing.

While human-rights activists continue pushing Beijing to ease its restrictions on free-speech rights, foreign governments also need to recognize the protectionist aspects of Chinese Web censorship and respond accordingly. China’s online protectionism goes against its obligations under the WTO. When China acceded to the trade body in 2001, it agreed to give unlimited access and equal treatment to foreign-based or foreign-owned businesses in many categories of services, including online services. These services count as imports to which China is supposed to be opening itself, even if they are delivered over a wire instead of in a shipping crate.

While the WTO agreements allow countries to set their own standard for public morals and order, disguised protectionist measures are forbidden. Nor can China argue that it is using the measures that restrict trade the least, one standard for acceptability under the WTO. The Appellate Body, which is the final authority of WTO dispute settlement, has just turned down an appeal by China in a dispute over its restrictions on the distribution of U.S. printed books, films and music; Beijing is now forced to either open that market or face retaliatory tariffs.

If China does not change its Internet censorship practices, it is likely to soon face another WTO dispute. The online market in China is simply too big for Europe and the U.S. to let trade-distorting regulations pass without action. Victories at the WTO on this front would be wins both for commerce and for civil rights.

Messrs. Erixon and Lee-Makiyama are director and visiting fellow, respectively, of the European Centre for International Political Economy in Brussels.

CN – China Closes Down The Internet: “(Forbes)
This week, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released regulations, dated Dec. 15, requiring the registration of all Web sites.
MIIT’s justification was the need to eliminate sexual content. As a Ministry spokesman stated, ‘This is about mobile pornography, it’s not referring to any other issue.’ The explanation, however comforting it sounds, is disingenuous. The wording of the rules is broad enough to cover all sites, domestic and foreign, whether or not they carry sex-themed material. ‘Domain names that have not registered will not be resolved or transferred,’ the regulations state. In other words, unregistered sites will become unavailable to users in China. see also Blacklist, White List? China’s Internet Censors Spawn Confusion (WSJ) by Loretta Chao.

(Via QuickLinks Update.)

CN – China says 5,394 arrested in Internet porn crackdown: “(Reuters)
Chinese police said the crackdown on Internet pornography had brought 5,394 arrests and 4,186 criminal case investigations in 2009 – a fourfold increase in the number of such cases compared with 2008. The announcement said the drive would deepen in 2010.

(Via QuickLinks Update.)

China Imposes New Internet Controls: “The new measures limit ordinary citizens’ ability to set up personal Web sites and to view hundreds of other sites.”

(Via NYT > Freedom of Speech and Expression.)