China Announces Plans to Regulate 'Unhealthy' Internet Content
China’s State Council Information Office and the Ministry of Information Industry announced that there will be new laws implemented to control the information posted on the internet.
Officials in China earlier in the week announced new rules that will restrict what news is posted on the internet, according to recent reports.
China’s State Council Information Office and the Ministry of Information Industry announced on Sept. 25 that there will be new laws implemented to control the information posted on the internet. According to sources, the new rules include banning religious news – such as those criticizing the government’s religious policies – from being posted on the internet. China reportedly claims that these laws were established in order to “protect the interests of the state.”
"We need to better regulate the online news services with the emergence of so many unhealthy news stories that will easily mislead the public," an unnamed spokesman with the Information Office said on Sept. 25, according to an article in China’s official state-run news agency.
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While agencies such as Italy-based AsiaNews suspect the internet restrictions occurred in order “to stifle protests and present a picture of stability and leadership unity,” China’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Qin Gang noted that “any media in any country have to observe laws and regulations.”
“Any country in the world will regulate the Internet and the media in accordance with law. It's only natural. There's no need to make a fuss about it,” he said, according to Forbes.
However, the Washington, D.C.-based Voice of America reports that in recent years there has been increased social unrest in China, with tens-of-thousands of protests occurring each year. The protests’ motives include religion among other topics.
"It is a climate of social instability at this time in China," said Julien Pain, who directs the Internet Freedom Desk in Paris, to Voice of America. “Many people are protesting every day. And I think the Chinese [government] just wants to tell them that, whether it is online or off-line, you should not protest."
According to Times Online UK the new laws focus on banning political adversaries, dissent, and protest against the government, through a process which the news agency described as “probably the most sophisticated internet filtering method in the world.”
China’s Public Security Bureau allegedly restricts information on the internet it believes is unsuitable by blocking main gateways to Chinese internet users. China’s police are also reportedly regulating a wide range of internet information – from websites, chat rooms and emails – that they consider inappropriate.
In addition, the Chinese government blocks many Chinese Christian websites, Times Online UK reports.
Last year, Forum 18 – a Norway-based agency that monitors religious freedom in Communist and former Soviet states – released a report following a two-month investigation conducted on China's censorship of religious materials on the internet.
As part of their investigation, the agency tested several hundred religious sites, including sites in a variety of languages (Chinese, Korean, Russian and Western languages) maintained by different faiths (including Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, and Jewish); overseas Chinese-language religious communities in South East Asia, Australasia and North America; religious rights groups; human rights groups; religious news agencies and magazines; religious educational institutions; religious political movements; and foreign governments.
The tests were carried out from mid-May to mid-July and looked at access in a variety of locations in China. At the conclusion of its investigation, Forum 18 reported that all the sites found by the agency to be inaccessible in China were accessible in Europe and North America.
According to Forum 18, the findings corresponded with “the general perception of a Chinese state that remains deeply concerned about maintaining internal stability and by extension, the continuation of Communist rule.”
AsiaNews, however, noted that sites deemed unthreatening – such as websites where the Chinese can read the Bible or sites that convey a positive image of religious freedom in China, and sites that report religious persecution in other countries – were unblocked.
So far, there has been no statement as to when China’s new rules will take effect. Moreover, China officials did not explain the new rules or what punishments will ensue if the laws were broken.
China’s official state-run news agency did, however, report that online news sites that published stories containing “fabricated information, pornography, gambling or violence” would be facing “severe punishments or even shutdown.”
