China opens windows on ‘The Great Firewall’
01 Jun 2015
China's internet police are going public, so to say, on social media accounts, in a bid to bring the country's internet censorship more into the open.
The Chinese government blocked many of the most popular western sites, including Facebook and YouTube, to nip challenges to the ruling party.
However, the internet police that kept them blocked would start joining the permitted sites like Weibo, and post about what they were blocking.
According to the Chinese ministry of public security, the new openness would help ease concerns about internet gambling and pornography, and would boost online police presence, Reuters reported. According to the ministry, that would help the police in its mission to prevent ''improper words and deeds online'', as well as helping get tip-offs.
According to the ministry, police in different areas across the country would open sites so that they could raise ''the visibility of the police online, working hard to increase a joint feeling of public safety for the online community and satisfy the public''.
The ministry added that people had been angered by illegality like fraud, gambling, and selling guns and drugs, which caused disorder on the internet. However, it also highlighted the increase in the number of people ''picking quarrels and provoking trouble'' - a charge liberally used to lock up dissidents and people who posed a threat to the ruling party.
Police in some 50 areas, from metropolises like Beijing and Shanghai to more obscure cities like Xuzhou in Jiangsu province, would open accounts on sites including Weibo, China's answer to Twitter, the ministry said late on yesterday.
The move comes as a response to rising public concern about problems like online gambling and pornography and was aimed at increasing the visibility of the police presence online to "create a harmonious, cultured, clear and bright Internet", it said.
"The Internet police are coming out to the front stage from behind the curtains, beginning regular open inspection and law enforcement efforts, raising the visibility of the police online, working hard to increase a joint feeling of public safety for the online community and satisfy the public," the ministry said.
The cyber police are working to root out "illegal and harmful information on the Internet, deter and prevent cyber crimes and improper words and deeds online, publish case reports and handle public tip-offs", it said.
The police would issue warnings to minor offenders and go after more serious cases.
"Just like in the real world, law violations in cyberspace will not go unaccounted for," it said.
