China’s Plans for a Safe Internet
A Safe and Clean Internet
According to Baidu, the world’s largest Chinese-language search engine, by the end of 2013 there were about 150 billion web pages within Chinese borders, an increase of 27.3 billion, or 22 percent, over 2012. With rapid technological progress, the Internet has become a fixture in daily life. But the online environment is also getting more complicated, with false, illegal or indecent content.
By the end of 2013 Baidu had detected more than 400 million malign websites. “It is more difficult to clean up the online environment than the physical one,” commented Hao Zhichao, deputy chief of the Reporting Section of the Internet Society of China. This, he said, is because, first, the Internet is an open environment that is difficult to monitor and administer; second, the instability of domain names, diversity of technological tricks and absence of a complete protection system all contribute to the perplexity of the security issue of cyber space, and explain the growing numbers of new challenges it faces.
The Chinese government has been persistent in its stance about the Internet – proactively exploring the best use of it and promoting its healthy development, while regulating it according to law. Over the past years China has conducted several “clean net” campaigns. The 2013 round alone busted more than 10,000 websites involved in illegal operations or obscene content.
The momentum goes on this year. On April 13, 2014 the State Internet Information Office, the National Work Group for “Combating Pornography and Illegal Publications,” the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the Ministry of Public Security decided to jointly launch a special project to remove illegal and indecent content online from mid-April to November 2014. By April 20 it had investigated and punished 110 websites and shut 3,300 accounts dissipating pornographic materials, including by well established companies such as Sina and Shenzhen QVOD.
With these proceedings China is expanding its anti-porn campaign from offline to online. “This demonstrates that there is no room in the cyber world for what is prohibited by the law or moral norms in real life,” said Han Jun, vice dean of Journalism and Communication School of Northwest University. She believes that online pornography disturbs social order, poisons public morality and is highly detrimental to minors.
According to Xia Xueluan, a Peking University professor of sociology, some websites spice their content with erotic content to drum up more visits, which bolster their profits. He recommeded stringent measures to sanitize the online environment.
Better Internet governance requires a sound legal system. Wu Hequan disclosed that over the past decade China promulgated more than 200 Internet-related laws, statutes and regulations. But it still lags behind other countries in legislation relevant to information, which has failed to meet the demand of Internet development in the country.
Some scholars have proposed that China should embrace a dynamic and inclusive information security conception and place equal emphasis on prevention and punishment in the making of Internet-related laws. The rights and obligations of all major parties in the cyber world must be clearly defined, and the legal duties of Internet service providers clarified. Furthermore, law enforcement should be strengthened, with heavier penalties for online crimes such as hacking and exposure of private, state or commercial secrets.
