New Rules to Increase Government Surveillance of Internet News Go Into Effect

The Rules on Internet Security Protection Technology Measures, which impose new requirements for Web site operators to retain the contents of news they post on the Internet, went into effect on March 1, 2006. The Rules, promulgated by the Ministry of Public Security on December 28, 2005, mandate nationwide data retention standards for Internet service providers (ISPs) and Internet information services (IISs). The Rules require ISPs to:

• record and retain their customers' registration information for 60 days;
• retain records for 60 days of when their customers access the Internet, and what their Internet address and/or domain name was; and
• have security technology in place to allow them to record and track "Internet movement" (which the Rules did not define or explain).

The Rules require IISs (defined elsewhere as any service that uses the Internet to provide information, and generally deemed to include Internet portals, Web site and blog hosting services, as well as private Web sites and blogs) to record and retain the content of any information that news providers post on their Web sites, as well as the time it was posted. This requirement is the most recent in a series of measures the Chinese government has taken since the beginning of 2005 to increase its ability to restrict and monitor the flow of news to China's citizens, including:

• A January 2006 announcement that the Ministry of Information Industry would be focusing on monitoring Internet content in 2006.
• Chinese authorities launching a period of "severe sanctions" against unregistered Web sites in December 2005.
• A government crackdown on private Web sites that the MII carried out throughout 2005.
• The promulgation of new rules governing the publication of newspapers and magazines and new rules that tightened government control over online news services in September 2005.

In January 2006, Su Jinsheng, director of the Telecommunications Office of China's Ministry of Information Industry (MII) told a reporter that the MII would coordinate with "relevant content regulating agencies" to "monitor online content." Su also said that the MII's goals during 2006 included "further strengthening the basic work of Internet administration, and establishing a Web site database, an Internet domain name information database, and an Internet IP address information database in order to coordinate related information."

Su's announcement followed a month during which Chinese authorities began a period of "severe sanctions" against unregistered Web sites. Those sanctions were part of a government crackdown on private Web sites that the MII launched in early 2005 pursuant to the Registration Administration Measures for Non-Commercial Internet Information Services that the MII promulgated in February 2005. As part of the registration process, Web site operators must disclose whether they carry news on their Web sites and, if so, whether they have the proper government authorizations to do so.

New rules governing the publication of newspapers and magazines in China went into effect on December 1, 2005. The General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) issued the Provisions on the Administration of Newspapers and Provisions on the Administration of Periodicals (in Chinese) on September 30. Under the Provisions, the government retains absolute control over who may publish a newspaper and who may work as a journalist or editor at a newspaper. The Provisions also define content restrictions, and impose formal procedures to allow the government to monitor newspapers' contents and impose sanctions, including banning a publication and fining its operators, for violating those restrictions.

In September 2005, the MII and the State Council Information Office promulgated the Rules on the Administration of Internet News Information Services. Those rules "tighten supervision over online news services," according to a September 26 Xinhua article, and prohibit anyone from using the Internet to post or transmit news reports or commentary relating to politics, economics, and military, foreign, and public affairs without prior government authorization.

During the last year public security bureaus in several large cities around China, including Qingdao, Guangzhou, and Beijing have begun enforcing the Measures for the Administration of Security Protection of Computer Information Networks with International Interconnections, which the Ministry of Public Security enacted in 1997, to require private Web site operators to register with the police.