Two thousand and nine will not be remembered as the year Chinese censors decided to lighten up. This week, the Chinese agency that oversees the country’s Internet domain name registry announced it will limit the system to use by businesses, effectively excluding private citizens from registering new domains.The new rules, which the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) put into place on Dec. 14, are meant to restrict online pornography. But some new media experts say they may add another tool to the country’s array of Internet controls. “Many believe that the crackdown on porn was just an excuse,” says Isaac Mao, a Chinese blogger and a fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society. “The real reason has to do with the various goals of internet censorship, one of which is to curb the individual’s voice.”
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1948283,00.html
China’s Domain-Name Limits: Web Censorship?
Two thousand and nine will not be remembered as the year Chinese censors decided to lighten up. This week, the Chinese agency that oversees the country’s Internet domain name registry announced it will limit the system to use by businesses, effectively excluding private citizens from registering new domains.