OpenNet Initiative Analyzes Effects of China's Mandatory Website Registration Regulations
Today the university-based OpenNet Initiative (ONI) released a bulletin analyzing the effects to date of China's non-commercial website registration regulations on website owners and bloggers.
The Berkman Center, along with the University of Toronto, the University of Cambridge, and Oxford University, are members of the Open Net Initiative. Berkman's John Palfrey and Jonathan Zittrain are ONI principals, and Berkman fellows Derek Bambauer and Eric Priest are ONI researchers.
Effective March 20, 2005, China's Ministry of Information Industry (MII) required that all non-commercial websites must register with the MII or face significant penalties. By August 2005, China's MII reported that over 90 percent of covered websites had been registered, although anecdotal examinations of such websites seem to indicate fewer registrations. In December 2005, the Chinese government launched a major campaign to shut down registered websites.
The ONI bulletin analyzes the effectiveness of the regulation's legal provisions and measures the practical impact on Chinese users, including website owners and bloggers. For example, website owners who fail to comply with the registration regulation face two punishments: administrative fines and the removal of their content from the Internet as their ISPs make the sites inaccessible to the public. According to the regulation, those who do not register by the deadline will be subject to a fine of 10,000 RMB (roughly $1,200 U.S.) and must comply within a specified period. If the owner does not register within that period and intentionally refuses to comply, his/her site will be shut down. For most owners, the price of not complying with the registration requirement is prohibitive, since the fine accounts for 1/2 to 2/3 of the annual income of the average Chinese urban citizen (roughly 15,000 RMB).
*If you'd like to read more about the effects of China's non-commercial website registration regulations, please read ONI's press release.
*If you'd like to read the full bulletin, please go here.
*If you are a member of the press and would like to speak with ONI's researchers, please contact Amanda Michel (amichel AT cyber.harvard.edu/617 495 5236)
*To keep up to date on these issues, please visit ONI's blog.
The Berkman Center, along with the University of Toronto, the University of Cambridge, and Oxford University, are members of the Open Net Initiative. Berkman's John Palfrey and Jonathan Zittrain are ONI principals, and Berkman fellows Derek Bambauer and Eric Priest are ONI researchers.
Effective March 20, 2005, China's Ministry of Information Industry (MII) required that all non-commercial websites must register with the MII or face significant penalties. By August 2005, China's MII reported that over 90 percent of covered websites had been registered, although anecdotal examinations of such websites seem to indicate fewer registrations. In December 2005, the Chinese government launched a major campaign to shut down registered websites.
The ONI bulletin analyzes the effectiveness of the regulation's legal provisions and measures the practical impact on Chinese users, including website owners and bloggers. For example, website owners who fail to comply with the registration regulation face two punishments: administrative fines and the removal of their content from the Internet as their ISPs make the sites inaccessible to the public. According to the regulation, those who do not register by the deadline will be subject to a fine of 10,000 RMB (roughly $1,200 U.S.) and must comply within a specified period. If the owner does not register within that period and intentionally refuses to comply, his/her site will be shut down. For most owners, the price of not complying with the registration requirement is prohibitive, since the fine accounts for 1/2 to 2/3 of the annual income of the average Chinese urban citizen (roughly 15,000 RMB).
*If you'd like to read more about the effects of China's non-commercial website registration regulations, please read ONI's press release.
*If you'd like to read the full bulletin, please go here.
*If you are a member of the press and would like to speak with ONI's researchers, please contact Amanda Michel (amichel AT cyber.harvard.edu/617 495 5236)
*To keep up to date on these issues, please visit ONI's blog.