China plans broader changes to Internet regulations

Weeks after major Chinese microblogs announced changes to their user contract to better regulate incoming content, and just days after Google announced it would alert gmail users of any potential state-sponsored intrusion of their accounts, China has proposed to further bolster the guidelines and purview of their national Internet policy.

According to the Wall Street Journal:

The new law, a draft of which was released for comment by the government Thursday, requires all the users of blogs, microblogs and Internet forums to use real identification when registering accounts, and allows the government to punish intermediaries for the spread of information it deems illegal. The previous law only forbade the direct spread or creation of illegal content, and was more ambiguous about user identification.

The burden of managing and enforcing these changes, however, is on the Internet service providers to “keep logs for a year and to provide technical assistance to the police and national security agencies.”  It will be interesting to see what policies China’s ISPs and other content providers put in place to respond to these stricter directives.

About the Author: Cale Guthrie Weissman