China wants to curb online publications of foreign companies

China wants foreign media companies to request permission to publish content online from now on. If they don’t, they risk being blocked by Chinese internet censorship. The communist country has been setting up an internet filter for quite some time.

The new rules have been published on a Chinese government website of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the British newspaper The Independent noted, among others. According to the published information, the new rules are due to take effect next month and will apply to all content posted online by foreign companies, Chinese companies with foreign ownership or other forms of foreign involvement. With regard to the online content, it is not only text, but also images, video or other digital expressions.

To keep online content accessible to Chinese, permission must be sought from the authorities. If companies want to obtain permission, they must adhere to a long list of rules. For example, the Chinese authorities point out that media companies are not allowed to publish statements that affect the ‘national unity’ and ‘territorial integrity’ of China. In addition, the country forbids the spread of ‘rumours’, for example.

Earlier, China started busting Chinese bloggers and social media users who had spread unauthorized rumours. The country has been trying for some time to control online expressions: for example, there is a large internet firewall that makes access to various, mostly Western, websites impossible.