Chinese Government Continues with "Purification of the Internet"

January 06, 2010 | News Category: Gaming Law

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Last year, in 2009, the Chinese government made a decision that all new computers that were bought in China would have to come with special Internet filtering software already installed. The software, the Green Dam Youth Escort, caused a nationwide outcry across China from both computer companies, and from Chinese citizens.

The software was ostensibly to be used to filter out porn websites, but also included online casino, and other online gambling sites. In the end, in a surprising move, the Chinese government did back down from making this a requirement, although they did not give up their fight to block numerous websites from reaching the homes of Chinese citizens.

Online gambling is grouped together with online pornography, and is part of a list of "sites deemed harmful to society." These "harmful" sites have become targets of the Chinese government in their quest to have "purification of the Internet." Although the Chinese government still wishes to block many sites from Internet users, the Associated Press has reported that the blocking policy that is already in place in China, and the plans they have to block much of the online world from their citizens, are some of the strictest that exist worldwide.

The Chinese Ministry of Public Security said in the past week that the fighting of online crime, and the "purification of the Internet" are both very closely linked to the stability of the country itself.

In order to obtain some help from the people, the Chinese government has offered rewards to those members of the public who are able to provide any useful information, which will help the government to police the use of online casinos and other "harmful" sites.

The Chinese government is now planning to focus their future efforts on the China-based operators of websites that are registered overseas, as well as on companies that provide online services, such as Internet Service Providers, and those companies that offer domain name registration, or any company that might rent virtual space with what is considered to be undesirable content.

There is much criticism of the Chinese policy to enforce these tactics that have been adopted, since it is known that not only are the pornographic sites, and the online gambling sites, targeted, but these rules are also used by the Chinese government to block sensitive political information that the government would prefer that the people do not hear.

Sites that have already been blocked in China are Facebook, YouTube, various news sites, Twitter, and more.