[x-pubpol] China tightening controls on Internet

[Joly MacFie]

http://news.yahoo.com/china-tightening-controls-internet-063131160.html

By Joe McDonald (AP)

<snip>

This week, China's legislature took up a measure to require Internet
users to register their real names, a move that would curtail the
Web's status as a freewheeling forum to complain, often anonymously,
about corruption and official abuses. The legislature scheduled a news
conference Friday to discuss the measure, suggesting it was expected
to be approved.

That comes amid reports Beijing might be disrupting use of software
that allows Web surfers to see sites abroad that are blocked by its
extensive Internet filters. At the same time, regulators have proposed
rules that would bar foreign companies from distributing books, news,
music and other material online in China.

Beijing promotes Internet use for business and education but bans
material deemed subversive or obscene and blocks access to foreign
websites run by human rights and Tibet activists and some news
outlets. Controls were tightened after social media played a role in
protests that brought down governments in Egypt and Tunisia.

In a reminder of the Web's role as a political forum, a group of 70
prominent Chinese scholars and lawyers circulated an online petition
this week appealing for free speech, independent courts and for the
ruling party to encourage private enterprise.

<snip>

The government says the latest Internet regulation before the National
People's Congress is aimed at protecting Web surfers' personal
information and cracking down on abuses such as junk e-mail. It would
require users to report their real names to Internet service and
telecom providers.

The main ruling party newspaper, People's Daily, has called in recent
weeks for tighter Internet controls, saying rumors spread online have
harmed the public. In one case, it said stories about a chemical plant
explosion resulted in the deaths of four people in a car accident as
they fled the area.

Proposed rules released this month by the General Administration of
Press and Publications would bar Chinese-foreign joint ventures from
publishing books, music, movies and other material online in China.
Publishers would be required to locate their servers in China and have
a Chinese citizen as their local legal representative.

That is in line with rules that already bar most foreign access to
China's media market, but the decision to group the restrictions
together and publicize them might indicate official attitudes are
hardening.

<snip>

Previous efforts to tighten controls have struggled with technical
challenges in a country with more than 500 million Internet users.

Microblog operators such as Sina Corp. and Tencent Ltd. were ordered
in late 2011 to confirm users' names but have yet to finish the
daunting task.

Web surfers can circumvent government filters by using virtual private
networks — software that encrypts Web traffic and is used by companies
to transfer financial data and other sensitive information. But VPN
users say disruptions that began in 2011 are increasing, suggesting
Chinese regulators are trying to block encrypted traffic.

Curbs on access to foreign sites have prompted complaints by companies
and Chinese scientists and other researchers.

In July, the American Chamber of Commerce in China said 74 percent of
companies that responded to a survey said unstable Internet access
"impedes their ability to do business."

Chinese leaders "realize there are detrimental impacts on business,
especially foreign business, but they have counted the cost and think
it is still worthwhile," said Lam. "There is no compromise about the
political imperative of controlling the Internet."


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