China Targets Blogs, Searches In New Crackdown

[george]

Not Thailand related, but interesting news about censorship in China:

China targets blogs, searches in new crackdown

BEIJING, CHINA: -- China will submit blogs and search engines to "strict supervision of the government" in its latest effort to control Internet content, state media on Friday quoted a senior official as saying.

"As more and more illegal and unhealthy information spreads through the blogs and search engines, we will take effective measures to put the BBS [bulletin board systems], blogs and search engines under control," the official Xinhua news agency quoted Cai Wu, director of government's Information Office, as saying.

Blogs, bulletin boards and searches are targeted because they are the "most active parts of China information industry," Cai said.

"The market cannot develop without efficient management," said Cai, adding that the government planned to improve its technology and develop "admittance standards" websites hosting blogs for China's estimated 111 million internet users.

"We will speed up the technology development to safeguard the network management and do more researches on the internet security issues triggered by the new technologies of blogs and search engines," Minister of the Information Industry Wang Xudong was quoted as saying.

Wang said China also planned to ensure that all websites were officially registered and enforce a requirement for all telephone subscribers to register their real names, the agency said.

China already has some 37 million blog sites and is forecast to have some 60 million by the end of this year, it quoted a report by Beijing's Qinghua University as saying.

Major Chinese internet search engine providers grouped together two years ago to form a "self-discipline organization" and take a stand against "pornographic and obscene websites," the agency said.

In May, China's leading internet search engine, Baidu, said it had amassed more than 100,000 entries in a censored version of US-based online encyclopedia Wikipedia, which is blocked in China.

Baidu bans content in seven categories, warning users that it will delete entries that make a "malicious evaluation" of China, "attack government institutions" or "promote a negative view of life."

It employs "experts" to "ensure the quality of entries and keep the site free of advertisements and junk information," the Shanghai Daily newspaper quoted a Baidu official as saying.

China's internet police block hundreds of websites that are deemed politically sensitive and try to keep content broadly in line with the ruling Communist Party's ideology.

Tens of thousands of small internet cafes have been closed, with the government favouring large chains that can be relied upon to monitor and control online activity.

Evidence from postings on websites has also been used in the conviction of several dissidents in recent years.

--DPA 2006-06-30

[giulio]

[Crushdepth]

Seconded This kind of stuff is just crazy. China bans *Wikipedia* ??!? Are they out of their minds?

The last couple of years have been pretty disturbing in terms of how governments are increasingly using the internet to invade your privacy, keep your mouth shut, punish those with different ideologies, and restrict what you can look at. Ok it was bad before but it's definitely getting worse. A few days ago there was also an alarming article about how the SWIFT international bank transfer system has been handing over data on transaction to the US Government. As a non-US citizen this kind of thing totally pisses me off - it's an outrageous invasion of privacy and client confidentiality. And the information will only be used to fight terror, sure.

To my horror I discovered last week that there is a loophole in Australian legislation that currently allows any law enforcement agency down to your garden variety police officer to access your personal electronic communications (email, SMS, whatever) without a warrant or judicial oversight - so long as they do it *before the messages have been delivered* (ie. they can grab them en route). They only need a warrant after you've received them. Fortunately this loophole is about to be closed, but I wonder how much it has been abused in the meantime.

If you live in the UK and have had the foresight to encrypt your private email or information to keep the bastards out, well - you can be legally compelled to hand over your encryption keys.

I'm beginning to agree that there is a need to regulate the internet - in terms of limiting how governments are allowed to abuse it. The pigs have got their snouts in the trough...its going to be hard to get them out of a stealthy information feast like this.