China tightens up censorship of Internet sites

BEIJING -- For years, Chinas net nannies turned the other cheek to a loophole in their vast online censorship apparatus.

Anyone who wanted access to blocked overseas websites such as Twitter, Facebook, and more recently, the New York Times, need only download foreign software called a virtual private network (VPN) to circumvent the Great Firewall.

But in recent weeks, even these tools have begun to falter, frustrating tech-savvy Chinese and foreign businesspeople who now struggle to access Internet sites as innocuous as gmail.com and imdb.com.

The tightening appears to be part of a broader and continuing campaign to rein in the Internet in China, which boasts nearly 600 million users and challenges the governments monopoly on information every day.

State media have been running editorials regularly about the dangers of an unregulated Internet, citing an uptick in rumormongering and misinformation.

By typing on the computer, one can send the meanest curse, the most shocking scandals, the most insensitive ridicule and it seems no one can do anything to you, the Beijing Morning Post said in an editorial Thursday. Any responsible government shouldnt let this become a method for the mass public to seek justice.

On Monday, one of Chinas top governing bodies, the National People's Congress Standing Committee, proposed requiring Internet users to register their real identities before accessing online services as a way to combat online fraud. If passed, the law would be especially damaging to Chinas micro-blogging platforms such as Sina Weibo.

The Twitter-like services double as a national nerve center for public opinion. Because bloggers have been able to shield their identities, the platform has also engendered online vigilantism by exposing more government malfeasance (be it hiding ill-gotten wealth in dozens of apartments, sex with a teenager or keeping two remarkably similar-looking sisters as mistresses).

Michael Anti, a Beijing-based critic of web censorship, believes the current pushback on the web reflects paranoia over incoming president Xi Jinpings crackdown on official corruption.

Local officials could be pressuring propaganda departments to curb freedom of speech online, he said.

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China tightens up censorship of Internet sites