China unveiled tighter Internet controls on Friday, legalising the
deletion of posts or pages which are deemed to contain "illegal"
information and requiring service providers to hand over such
information to the authorities for punishment.
The rules signal that
the new leadership headed by Communist Party chief Xi Jinping will
continue muzzling the often scathing, raucous online chatter in a
country where the Internet offers a rare opportunity for debate.
The
new regulations, announced by the official Xinhua news agency, also
require Internet users to register with their real names when signing up
with network providers, though, in reality, this already happens.
Chinese
authorities and Internet companies such as Sina Corp have long since
closely monitored and censored what people say online, but the
government has now put measures such as deleting posts into law.
"Service
providers are required to instantly stop the transmission of illegal
information once it is spotted and take relevant measures, including
removing the information and saving records, before reporting to
supervisory authorities," the rules state.
The restrictions follow
a series of corruption scandals amongst lower-level officials exposed
by Internet users, something the government has said it is trying to
encourage.
Chinese Internet users already cope with extensive
censorship measures, especially over politically sensitive topics like
human rights and elite politics, and popular foreign sites Facebook,
Twitter and Google-owned YouTube are blocked.
Earlier this year,
the government began forcing users of Sina's wildly successful Weibo
microblogging platform to register their real names.
The new rules were quickly condemned by some Weibo users.
"So
now they are getting Weibo to help in keeping records and reporting it
to authorities. Is this the freedom of expression we are promised in the
constitution?" complained one user.
"We should resolutely oppose such a covert means to interfere with Internet freedom," wrote another.
The
government says tighter monitoring of the Internet is needed to prevent
people making malicious and anonymous accusations online, disseminating
pornography and spreading panic with unfounded rumours, pointing out
that many other countries already have such rules.
Despite
periodic calls for political reform, the party has shown no sign of
loosening its grip on power and brooks no dissent to its authority.
© Thomson Reuters 2012