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good read China Closes Down The Internet
From: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Fri, 25 Dec 2009 19:54:49 -0500
Begin forwarded message:
From: James Seng <james () seng sg> Date: December 25, 2009 7:44:56 PM EST To: dave <dave () farber net> Cc: ip <ip () v2 listbox com> Subject: Re: [IP] China Closes Down The Internet
I am somewhat involved but I am in no way a spokeman for MIIT. But this article is full of misinformation that it is not even funny so let me fill in some gaps.1. First, the title "China Closes Down the Internet" is laughable as I have just click on the link provided below and I can say I am reading it just fine from Beijing.Sure, I am still having difficulties in accessing Facebook, Youtube, Twitter but that has been the norm since early Apr this year.2. The background story is on 9th Dec, CCTV runs a documentary about the domain name industry and its practices, particularly focuses on the negative aspect of it. The focus is the point that porn website operators hides behind a long list of domain names, where one get shutdown and immediate another spring up. They documentary concluded that the relevant government agency is not doing enough to stop all these bad practices with its lax rules.The document video is available at http://v.blog.sohu.com/u/vw/3865377 失控的域名 ("Lost Control of the Domain")There are even more complex background story behind why CCTV runs the shows but I don't go there here3. The result is that CNNIC suspended and penalized 3 China registrars who are found to practice what the CCTV documentary on 11th Dec. Unfortunately, this has not enough and the pressure keep mounting on MIIT and CNNIC to do more.http://news.ccw.com.cn/internet/htm2009/20091211_837696.shtml4. On 14th Dec, CNNIC issued a statement that they will no longer accept registrations from individuals. Furthermore, companies who wants to do domain names have to send in documentations of the company incorporation.http://media.ifeng.com/news/newmedia/web/ 200912/1214_4266_1473458.shtml5. The 16th, MIIT called for a press conference. http://www.miit.gov.cn/n11293472/n11293832/n11293907/n11368223/12894996.html Summary(a) They will developed a blacklist of domains (b) They will tighten control on domain name registrations and not allowing individuals to registrar domain names (c) They will tighten the control over ICP regime.6. The "blacklist" of domain is where Gordon going really off the mark:"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."There is a huge difference between a blacklist and whitelist and lumping them as one is just trying to justifying his conclusion that "China will no longer have an Internet".Blacklist is nothing new in China - I already cannot access Facebook, Youtube or Twitter since early this years. Over the years, many websites landed in the blacklist one way or another for different reasons.8. The ICP regime, where all website in China, have to be registered with MIIT, is nothing new. It has been in place for many years; it is impossible to get web hosting in China without a ICP registrations and MIIT regularly shutdown websites that did not have ICP registrations.(All website in China has a ICP number at the bottom : See http://www.baidu.com/ and then you will find something like 京ICP证030173号)9. The tightening of domain name registration is what has change - effectively reverting back to prior 2003 where all domain names under .CN requires all sort of documentations and verification process.10. There is still constant pressure for MIIT and CNNIC to do more, so I think there would be even further tightening of control. A lot of ideas has been thrown around but no one can say with certainty what other policy will be set in place.But one thing I can say with certainty : This would not end with .CN and will go further to .COM and other gTLDs.-James Seng On Sat, Dec 26, 2009 at 7:22 AM, Dave Farber <dave () farber net> wrote: 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 ETThis 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>Archives
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- good read China Closes Down The Internet Dave Farber (Dec 25)