From the Ministry of Public Security (link), translated by CDT:
A working meeting about the Internet management of public security agencies that ended on May 13 decided to expand the “virtual police” that is in practice in Shenzhen to eight other cities: Chongqing, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Qingdao, Xiamen, Guangzhou, Wuhan and Chengdu.
According to Vice Minister of Public Security Zhang Xinfeng, who spoke at the meeting, the online police patrols will be added into the overall framework of maintaining social order by public security departments, making the cyberspace policing open.
Zhang touted Shenzhen’s vanguard practice as a great experience which can be learned from, with increased police presence and intervention frequency on the web. Shenzhen’s virtual police do their job openly, interacting with netizens and warning, educating and stopping vulgar phenomena and illegal activities such as libeling, spreading pornography, gambling, fraud, etc. Information “guards” are assigned to online forums and web sites, with “order-keeping posts” positioned at major sites, thus building up a social line of preventing harmful information and keeping online order and security. The “proactive management,” Zhang noted, is an important means to solve conflicts online and maintain a harmonious society, thus helping to uphold the image of the Party and the government and that of the police on the web.
Zhang called on other cities to follow suit with Shenzhen’s example, encouraging police in the cities to patrol the Internet like they do on the streets and assign policemen’s online responsibility districts. Among other measures, Zhang proposed to set up an online crime reporting web site, work with web sites and online media to prevent the attack of viruses, and mobilize the public in keeping online order.
See also – NYTimes’ “Volunteers help Beijing control Internet” carried by the Taipei Times (link); – People’s Daily’s “Chinese Internet Police” (link); – Lokman Tsui’s thesis “Internet in China: Big Mama is Watching You” (link); – the ESWN blog’s “A Day In The Life Of A Chinese Internet Police Officer” (link)
