IP: China Imposes New Controls on Internet Access (edupage)

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

New rules against "defaming government agencies," spreading pornography and
violence, and revealing state secrets have been imposed by the Chinese
government. The rules, which are said particularly to target Internet
users, call for criminal punishment and fines of up to $1,800 for Internet
providers and users who are found to have spread "harmful" information or
leak state secrets via the Internet. In announcing the rules, China's
assistant minister for public security noted that Internet links had
increased China's cultural and scientific exchanges around the world, but
that "the connection has also brought about some security problems,
including manufacturing and publicizing harmful information, as well as
leaking state secrets." (Chronicle of Higher Education 9 Jan 1998;
(Edupage, 8 Jan 1998)