Censorship in China

Internet censorship in CHEENA

The internet censorship in the People's Republic of China is conducted under a wide variety of laws and administrative regulations. In accordance with these laws, more than sixty Internet regulations have been made by the People's Republic of China (PRC) government, and censorship systems are vigorously implemented by provincial branches of state-owned ISPs, business companies, and organizations.

The Golden Shield Project is owned by the Ministry of Public Security of the People's Republic of China (MPS). It started in 1998, began the process in November 2003, and the first part of the project passed the national inspection on 16 November 2006 in Beijing. According to MPS, it is to construct a communication network and computer information system for police to improve their capability and efficiency.

Government in China disabled keyword searches for "Urumqi", and blocked access to Facebook and Twitter as well as local alternatives Fanfou and Youku. Chinese news sites mainly fed from Xinhua news service for updates about the rioting in Urumqi, comments features on websites were disabled on some stories to prevent negative posts about the lack of news. Internet connections in Urumqi were reportedly down. Many unauthorized postings on local sites and Google were said to have been "harmonised" by government censors, and emails containing terms related to the riots were blocked or edited to prevent discord. Nevertheless, images and video footage of the demonstrations and rioting were soon found posted on Twitter, YouTube and Flickr.

Several sexually oriented blogs began appearing in early 2004. Women using the web aliases Muzi Mei and Zhuying Qingtong wrote online diaries of their sex lives and became minor celebrities. This was widely reported and criticized in mainland Chinese news media, and several of these bloggers' sites have since been blocked in China to this day. Many dating and "adult chat" sites, both Chinese and foreign, have also been blocked.

Some hotels in China are also advising internet users to obey local Chinese internet access rules by leaving a list of internet rules and guidelines near the computers. These rules, among other things, forbid linking to politically unacceptable messages, and inform internet users that if they do, they will have to face legal consequences. In September 2007, some data centers were shut down indiscriminately for providing interactive features such as blogs and forums. CBS reports an estimate that half the interactive sites hosted in China were blocked.