China on Sunday imposed more restrictions intended to limit the news and other information available to Internet users, and it sharply restricted the scope of content permitted on Web sites.
The rules are part of a broader effort to roll back what the Communist Party views as a threatening trend toward liberalization in the news media. Taken together, the measures amount to a stepped-up effort to police the Internet, which has become a dominant source of news and information for millions of urban Chinese.
It is worth noting that these new regulations include two additional categories of forbidden content compared with previously released regulations: 1) information inciting illegal assemblies, demonstrations, marches, or gatherings to disturb social order and 2) information released in the name of “illegal civil organizations.” This is an apparent attempt to target the capacity to organize online.
See also: China’s leaders launch smokeless war against internet and media dissent from the Guardian and “The great firewall of modern China” from the Financial Times.
More on this topic, via Google News. This topic in the blogosphere, via Technorati.
UPDATE: The Congressional-Executive Commission on China has just posted a full translation of the Rules on the Administration of Internet News Information Services on their website.
More discussion on this subject, please go to the China Digital Space wiki page here.
