Just as blog hosting companies (including Yahoo! and MSN) have signed a self-regulating pact in which they pledge to monitor personal details about users, the city of Luoyang is showing a more enlightened attitude toward Internet dissent, according to China Media Project:
In a rare show of tolerance in Internet policy, top party and government leaders in the prefecture-level city of Luoyang released a notice recently prohibiting subordinate offices from employing technical means to dig up information on individual Internet users with an eye for retaliation, Henan’s Dahe Daily News reported. The policy comes as ordinary Internet users are increasingly being targeted by local authorities in China for posting content regarded as damaging to local government reputations. [Full text]
