- Apr 24, 2013
- 1,200
Internet users in China must now register their real names in order to legally upload video in accordance with a new rule introduced to increase the government's stranglehold over online discourse in the country.
According to Reuters, the rule has been set in place in order to "prevent vulgar content, base art forms, exaggerated violence and sexual content in internet video having a negative effect on society", although in reality it is undoubtedly the latest in a series of moves by the Chinese Communist party to quash the expression of anti-government sentiment.
The rule was published on the website of China's State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, also known as SARFT. SARFT is the government agency that controls all content of radio, television, satellite (including, where possible foreign satellite) and internet broadcasts within the country. It is directly responsible for overseeing state-owned media, and also censors any material that may offend the Chinese government.
In the past few years SARFT has been responsible for issuing guidelines limiting the number of reality TV shows and historical dramas that can be broadcast on Chinese television, and in 2009 it issued a directive that highlighted 31 categories of content that were to be prohibited online.
The 2013 World Rights Report by Human Rights Watch notes that freedom of expression in China deteriorated significantly last year as the new administration came to power. The government, which already blocks access to many social networks such as Facebook and Twitter using "the Great Firewall", launched a huge crackdown on micro-blogging sites known as weibo. According to the report:
"Since August, authorities have waged a campaign against 'online rumors'. The campaign has targeted influential online opinion leaders and ordinary netizens. The authorities have detained hundreds of Internet users for days, closed down over 100 'illegal' news websites run by citizen journalists, and detained well-known liberal online commentator Charles Xue.
"Also in August, the government official in charge of internet affairs warned internet users against breaching 'seven bottom lines', including China's 'socialist system', the country's 'national interests', and 'public order'. In September, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate (state prosecutor) issued a new judicial interpretation applying four existing criminal provisions to internet expression, providing a more explicit legal basis for charging Internet users."
Faced with firewalls and censorship, as well as attempts to force people to register SIM cards with their real names, Chinese citizens have proved overwhelmingly adept at finding their way around restrictions that are designed to intimidate them or prevent them from expressing themselves, but the increase in legal charges is a worrying sign that freedom of expression is only growing more risky and difficult in China.
Much like micro-blogging sites, online video sites are a popular platform for China's 538 million internet users to turn to when they want to express their grievances and dissatisfaction with the Communist regime. The newly introduced restriction on uploading video is clearly a further attempt to identify individual dissidents who are using the internet to critique social and political issues, or highlight corruption, in order that the government can pursue legal action against them.
No doubt similar rules that apply to microblogging sites -- whereby a post that is reposted more than 500 times or seen by at least 5,000 people can result in threatened legal action against the person who originally posted it -- will soon be used to pursue video makers too.
According to Reuters, the rule has been set in place in order to "prevent vulgar content, base art forms, exaggerated violence and sexual content in internet video having a negative effect on society", although in reality it is undoubtedly the latest in a series of moves by the Chinese Communist party to quash the expression of anti-government sentiment.
The rule was published on the website of China's State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, also known as SARFT. SARFT is the government agency that controls all content of radio, television, satellite (including, where possible foreign satellite) and internet broadcasts within the country. It is directly responsible for overseeing state-owned media, and also censors any material that may offend the Chinese government.
In the past few years SARFT has been responsible for issuing guidelines limiting the number of reality TV shows and historical dramas that can be broadcast on Chinese television, and in 2009 it issued a directive that highlighted 31 categories of content that were to be prohibited online.
The 2013 World Rights Report by Human Rights Watch notes that freedom of expression in China deteriorated significantly last year as the new administration came to power. The government, which already blocks access to many social networks such as Facebook and Twitter using "the Great Firewall", launched a huge crackdown on micro-blogging sites known as weibo. According to the report:
"Since August, authorities have waged a campaign against 'online rumors'. The campaign has targeted influential online opinion leaders and ordinary netizens. The authorities have detained hundreds of Internet users for days, closed down over 100 'illegal' news websites run by citizen journalists, and detained well-known liberal online commentator Charles Xue.
"Also in August, the government official in charge of internet affairs warned internet users against breaching 'seven bottom lines', including China's 'socialist system', the country's 'national interests', and 'public order'. In September, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate (state prosecutor) issued a new judicial interpretation applying four existing criminal provisions to internet expression, providing a more explicit legal basis for charging Internet users."
Faced with firewalls and censorship, as well as attempts to force people to register SIM cards with their real names, Chinese citizens have proved overwhelmingly adept at finding their way around restrictions that are designed to intimidate them or prevent them from expressing themselves, but the increase in legal charges is a worrying sign that freedom of expression is only growing more risky and difficult in China.
Much like micro-blogging sites, online video sites are a popular platform for China's 538 million internet users to turn to when they want to express their grievances and dissatisfaction with the Communist regime. The newly introduced restriction on uploading video is clearly a further attempt to identify individual dissidents who are using the internet to critique social and political issues, or highlight corruption, in order that the government can pursue legal action against them.
No doubt similar rules that apply to microblogging sites -- whereby a post that is reposted more than 500 times or seen by at least 5,000 people can result in threatened legal action against the person who originally posted it -- will soon be used to pursue video makers too.
