China Closes Down The Internet

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: dewayne () warpspeed com (Dewayne Hendricks)
> Date: December 25, 2009 4:49:30 PM EST
> To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <xyzzy () warpspeed com>
> Subject: [Dewayne-Net] China Closes Down The Internet

> [Note:  This item comes from friend Steve Goldstein.  DLH]
>
> From: Steve Goldstein <sng () cox net>
> Date: December 25, 2009 7:57:43 AM PST
> To: Hendricks Dewayne <dewayne () warpspeed com>, ip <ip () v2 listbox com>
> Subject: Forbes Article: China Closes Down The Internet
>
> <http://www.forbes.com/2009/12/24/china-internet-blacklist-beijing-opinions-columnists-gordon-g-chang.html?partner=daily_newsletter 
> >
>
> New Asia
> China Closes Down The Internet
> Gordon G. Chang, 12.25.09, 12:01 AM ET
>
>
> 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.
>
> Today, Beijing blocks a multitude of sites, in effect creating a  
> blacklist. Under the new system, there will be a "whitelist": only  
> registered sites will be accessible inside the country. Once the  
> regulation is fully implemented, China will no longer have an  
> Internet. In effect, it will downgrade to an intranet. At this  
> moment, there are perhaps 270 million Web sites across the world,  
> and only a miniscule number of them will register with the Chinese  
> authorities.
>
> Of course, the whitelist system, which is to be implemented in three  
> phases next year, is completely incompatible with a modern society  
> such as China's. Already, the country's traditionally noisy netizens  
> are complaining. They flooded a Twitter-like service run by the  
> Communist Party's flagship publication People's Daily, causing the  
> site to be immediately taken down. Moreover, official publications  
> have expressed caution about putting the sweeping rules into effect.  
> Foreign governments are bound to get in on the act because the  
> expansive regulations, by blocking access to business sites,  
> probably constitute a violation of China's trade obligations.
>
> MIIT tried a similar stunt this spring with its requirement that the  
> so-called Green Dam-Youth Escort filtering software be installed in  
> all computers sold in China from July 1. The Ministry justified this  
> rule on pornography grounds, but many suspect the software was  
> intended to block unwanted political content. After an uproar--from  
> both home and abroad--Chinese authorities admitted they had made a  
> mistake and backed down.
>
> Yet they did not give up. Earlier this month, the country's top  
> police officer, Meng Jianzhu, publicly said that China's Internet  
> monitoring--perhaps the most effective in the world--was not good  
> enough. At the time, it appeared he was just moaning, as public  
> security officials have been doing for years. But this week it  
> became clear Meng was getting the public ready for a really  
> spectacular set of regulations.
>
> Will Beijing actually implement the new measures as promulgated? At  
> first glance, that would seem unlikely. "What usually happens when  
> suddenly compiled rules appear without warning is that they are  
> rarely enforced," says Kaiser Kuo, a respected Internet analyst in  
> Beijing. "My gut reaction is that this is yet another of those cases."
>
> [snip]RSS Feed: <http://www.warpspeed.com/wordpress>



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