Index relies entirely on the support of donors and readers to do its work.
Help us keep amplifying censored voices today.
Prev
Next
China creates new body to oversee internet
China has set up a new office wielding the whip of internet censorship, as if current levels of online control weren’t enough.
China’s State Council Information Office (the government’s propaganda arm) said was creating a new agency, the State Internet Information Office, under its jurisdiction to control all facets of life on the web.
Its duties are manifold, ranging from directing online content management, licensing online news providers, online gaming, video, promoting major news websites, register domain names and managing online marketing for the government. It will also investigate websites and punish violators.
Responding to criticisms, an unnamed government officer was quoted by the State news agency Xinhua as saying these remarks were “untenable” and were spread with an aim to “tarnish the image of China.” The new body, it said, would help regulate the Internet in ways similar to many other countries, and control vulgarity, fake news and online gambling.
According to the New York Times the growth of the internet in China has “spawned a sort of land rush for regulatory turf by government agencies that see in it a chance to gain more authority or more money, or both.” At least 14 government units, it says, have their finger in internet control in some form of another.
It suggests that this new agency may cause some infighting between it and these other units.