China to pass 'state secrets' internet law

[TriWooOx]

Quote:The move to make communications companies monitor and inform on clients' activities comes as China continues tightening controls on the internet and telecommunications services.

It follows a spat over censorship that prompted search giant Google to move its Chinese site to Hong Kong last month.

A draft law submitted to China's top legislature for review obliges telecoms operators and internet service providers to help police and state security departments in investigations about leaks of state secrets.

In China, state secrets have been so broadly defined that virtually anything - maps, GPS coordinates, even economic statistics - could fall under the category, and officials sometimes use the classification as a way to avoid disclosing information.

Under the new legislation, all internet service providers would be required to detect, report and delete information deemed to be disclosing state secrets.

The draft law leaves a wide scope for what could be considered state secrets, defining them as: "information that concerns state security and interests and, if leaked, would damage state security and interests in the areas of politics, economy and national defence, among others."

The draft law has been submitted to the National People's Congress Standing Committee for a third review - usually the final stage before being adopted by lawmakers.

Chinese leaders appear determined to monitor the flow of information that reaches the world's largest internet population of 384 million users. The government recently also issued new regulations to tighten procedures for domain name registration and to remove websites that are not officially registered.

Chinese authorities view the control of information as key to heading off or controlling the spread of unrest. After deadly ethnic riots broke out in a Muslim region in western China in July, Beijing blocked Twitter and Facebook, unplugged the internet entirely and slowed cell phone service to stifle reports about the violence.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnew...t-law.html