{"id":34660,"date":"2017-10-09T14:30:04","date_gmt":"2017-10-09T03:30:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=34660"},"modified":"2017-10-09T11:52:18","modified_gmt":"2017-10-09T00:52:18","slug":"internet-censorship-how-china-does-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/internet-censorship-how-china-does-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Internet censorship: how China does it"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

Last month, Chinese state media published articles commemorating the 30th anniversary of China\u2019s first-ever email: \u2018Across the Great Wall, we can reach every corner in the world.\u2019<\/p>\n

The email\u00a0was sent<\/a> from a research institute under China North Industries Group Corporation in Beijing on 14 September 1987 and received by the University of Karlsruhe in Germany at 8.55 pm on 20 September 1987.<\/p>\n

Techno-optimists believed that the internet would ensure a free flow of information and ultimately a democratic society in authoritarian states like China. Thirty years on, however, China has instead built a Great Firewall, a vast hardware and software system that aims to prevent access to undesirable websites and censors sensitive content.<\/p>\n

While China\u2019s extensive internet censorship isn\u2019t new, there are several myths about how information controls are actually enforced by the Communist Party of China (CPC).<\/p>\n

As of June 2017, China\u2019s internet population had\u00a0reached<\/a> 751 million, which is more than the total population of Europe. The Chinese social media landscape is complex and vibrant. Tencent\u2019s WeChat, China\u2019s most popular instant messaging application,\u00a0has<\/a> 889 million monthly active users. As of April 2017, Sina Weibo, China\u2019s Twitter-like service,\u00a0had<\/a> 340 million monthly active users, generating more profits than its counterpart in the West. And the Chinese internet is full of other booming industries, such as the gaming sector, bulletin boards and live-streaming platforms.<\/p>\n

Those statistics help to explain why the CPC increasingly sees the internet as the core\u00a0battleground<\/a> for ideological control and its very own survival. Hence, we\u2019ve witnessed multiple\u00a0clampdowns on VPNs<\/a> (virtual private networks, which help internet users jump over the Great Firewall and evade censorship), efforts to control narratives in the ideological sphere through the so-called\u00a0Document 9<\/a> and other\u00a0directives<\/a>, and restrictions on\u00a0video-streaming services<\/a> as well as\u00a0chat applications<\/a>, all under the rationale of \u2018preventing the spread of illegal information\u2019.<\/p>\n

Successful implementation of censorship, which often overlaps with the state\u2019s propaganda agenda, is also a demonstration of the government\u2019s strength in social control. As political scientist Haifeng Huang\u00a0pointed out<\/a>, it\u2019s one of the straightforward tools that\u2019s used to remind people of who\u2019s in charge.<\/p>\n

A widely shared perception is that the Chinese government can effectively censor unwanted content in a timely and monolithic fashion. That\u2019s only true to some extent. Analysts tend to overestimate the state\u2019s capacity to impose uniform censorship while underestimating the policy implementation hurdles faced by central and provincial bureaucratic agencies and the extent of the state\u2019s reliance on its symbiotic relationship with internet companies in China.<\/p>\n

China\u2019s internet bureaucracy is a two-tiered system. Censorship directives come either from the central government or the provincial one, while high-level policies are made centrally. The management of internet companies follows the principle of territorial management (\u5c5e\u5730\u539f\u5219, shudi yuanze<\/em>).<\/p>\n

For example, a\u00a0decision to remove content<\/a> from WeChat should come from Guangdong Provincial Cyberspace Administration since Tencent, WeChat\u2019s parent company, is based in Guangdong. In contrast, general regulations that apply to all internet platforms are drafted by the central Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC).<\/p>\n

Below is a list of regulations released by the CAC in a two-week span between August and September 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t
Regulation<\/th>Rule<\/th>Impact<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Internet Forum Service Management Regulation<\/a> (\u4e92\u8054\u7f51\u8bba\u575b\u793e\u533a\u670d\u52a1\u7ba1\u7406\u89c4\u5b9a)<\/td>Article 8: Users should be denied service if they do not register under their real identities for online forums and message boards.<\/td>Further prevent anonymity on the Chinese internet.
\nRe-emphasise companies\u2019 responsibility to monitor and control content on their platforms.
\nPush the burden of content monitoring and controls further down to individual users.
\nResult in further self-censorship and chilling effects.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Internet Thread Comments Service Management Regulation<\/a> (\u4e92\u8054\u7f51\u8ddf\u5e16\u8bc4\u8bba\u670d\u52a1\u7ba1\u7406\u89c4\u5b9a)<\/td>Article 9: Providers of commenting and posting services should create a credit system where users will receive ratings that determine their scope of service. Severe violators of regulations should be blacklisted and denied future services. Governments should keep a credit file on users.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Internet User Public Account Information Services Management Regulation<\/a> (\u4e92\u8054\u7f51\u7528\u6237\u516c\u4f17\u8d26\u53f7\u4fe1\u606f\u670d\u52a1\u7ba1\u7406\u89c4\u5b9a)<\/td>Article 6: Internet users must provide their organisation, national identity documents and mobile phone numbers or be denied service.
\nArticle 13: Companies should also set up credit rating systems tied to user accounts.
\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Management Rules of Internet Group Information Services<\/a> (\u4e92\u8054\u7f51\u7fa4\u7ec4\u4fe1\u606f\u670d\u52a1\u7ba1\u7406\u89c4\u5b9a)<\/td>Article 4: Providers of information services through internet chat groups and users must adhere to correct guidance, promoting socialist core values, fostering a positive and healthy online culture, and protecting a favorable online ecology.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n

The implementation of censorship often involves pushing the burden of content monitoring and controls down to the lowest level possible. All internet companies operating in China are subject to laws and regulations that hold them legally responsible for content on their platforms. They are expected to invest in staff and filtering technologies to moderate content and stay in compliance with government regulations.\u00a0Failure to comply can lead to fines<\/a> or\u00a0revocation<\/a> of operating licences.<\/p>\n

While the state\u2019s reliance on companies\u2019 compliance serves as an effective sword of Damocles, it can result in \u2018cracks in the Great Firewall<\/a>\u2019, if it\u2019s in companies\u2019 interests to resist government efforts and provide otherwise censored content to compete with other platforms. It makes a\u00a0temporary failure of censorship<\/a>, whether due to technical glitches or deliberate defiance, possible.<\/p>\n

Moreover, there is no clear-cut, easy-to-follow guideline for companies to decide what ought to be filtered from their platforms. In 2010, China\u2019s State Council Information Office published a major government-issued document on its internet policy. It includes\u00a0a list of prohibited topics<\/a> that are vaguely defined, including \u2018disrupting social order and stability\u2019 and \u2018damaging state honour and interests\u2019. This regulatory environment pushes companies to over-censor, a phenomenon China expert Perry Link\u00a0described<\/a> as \u2018the anaconda in the chandelier\u2019.<\/p>\n

The commercialised process often leads to a decentralised and fragmented application of censorship on the Chinese internet. Those amorphous censorship practices have also\u00a0caused<\/a> unintended abuses, including China\u2019s\u00a0\u2018black PR\u2019 business<\/a> and companies\u2019 blocking of non-sensitive content\u00a0out of commercial interest<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Studies of\u00a0mobile games<\/a>,\u00a0chat applications<\/a>,\u00a0blogs<\/a>,\u00a0search engines<\/a> and\u00a0live-streaming platforms<\/a> in China by the University of Toronto\u2019s Citizen Lab and others have consistently found variances in how companies implement censorship. Those empirical studies reveal that while companies may be receiving general directives on prohibited content, they haven\u2019t been given a central list of banned keywords.<\/p>\n

Chinese leaders are well aware of the dilemmas in the country\u2019s current internet management system and its management of content via companies. That is why Xi\u2019s administration has taken big steps in reshaping China\u2019s internet control agencies by establishing the CAC and passing the influential Cybersecurity Law.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear how effective those internet management reforms will be, but it seems evident that 30 years after it first embraced global cyberspace, the CPC has decided that it\u2019s in the party\u2019s best interests to \u2018traverse the hurdle represented by the internet<\/a>\u2019 rather than simply letting its people reach \u2018every corner of the world\u2019 online.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last month, Chinese state media published articles commemorating the 30th anniversary of China\u2019s first-ever email: \u2018Across the Great Wall, we can reach every corner in the world.\u2019 The email\u00a0was sent from a research institute under …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":717,"featured_media":34663,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[748,52,692,224],"class_list":["post-34660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-censorship","tag-china","tag-internet","tag-social-media"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nInternet censorship: how China does it | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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