China toughens Internet rules

BEIJING (AFP) – China has issued new restrictions on Internet use, requiring those wanting to set up a website to meet regulators and provide identity documents, in a move slammed Wednesday by one rights group.

The new rules come as the United States has stepped up pressure on Beijing to break down its vast system of web controls -- the so-called "Great Firewall of China" -- for the more than 380 million people now online in the country.
Washington issued those calls after US Internet giant Google said last month it was considering pulling out of China over cyberattacks and Chinese government censorship of its search results.
China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the new guidelines to local authorities on February 8 and lifted a ban imposed in December on individuals acquiring .cn domain names, state media said Tuesday.
Individuals wanting to set up a website will have to submit identity cards and photos of themselves, as well as meet regulators, before their domain name can be registered, the reports said.
It was not immediately clear if the new restrictions were now in use.
The ministry said the new rules were designed to tackle online pornography, but media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders said the government was trying to scare people offline.
"These new regulations represent a very disturbing step backwards for the Chinese Internet," the group said in a statement.
"The pretext of combating pornography does not hold. The aim is to tighten political control and get Internet users to censor themselves by bringing them face-to-face with their censors or their agents.
"What netizen will dare to criticise the regime after meeting the person who could put them behind bars for one wrong word?"
China has the world's largest online population with at least 384 million users, according to official figures.
The government says it censors the web to curb "unhealthy" content including porn and violence, but critics counter it is mainly trying to prevent the posting of information that challenges the ruling Communist Party.
An online poll by admin5.com, an Internet industry website, showed more than 70 percent of 1,300 respondents would not register a .cn address, despite the lifting of the ban, the Global Times reported Wednesday.
"The policy is different every day. How am I supposed to know if my websites with .cn won't be shut down some day?" one website operator was quoted as saying.

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