[governance] MIIT - China Syndrome

[Yehuda Katz]

The following articles were interesting, When I read "... the UN Internet
standards body the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) said ..." I had
to LOL. Anyway Enjoy


China wants to meter web traffic 
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1566760/china-meter-web-traffic

[Excerpt]
... Strangely the UN internet standards body the International
Telecommunications Union (ITU) said that it was not clear how introducing
tariffs could threaten Internet security or stability.

It said the Chinese proposal did not involve modifying the Border Gateway
Protocol (BGP). All it involved was using BGP routers to collect traffic flow
data, which could be used under bilateral agreements by operators for billing
purposes. For the last ten years there have been talks about international
Internet tariffs and the Chinese proposal was one of many ideas of being
studied by ITU.

But Servida warned that the BGP protocol is an Internet Engineering Task Force
standard and is not under the control of the ITU. He said that "the involvement
of [the] ITU in this specific matter is highly questionable and alarming". ...

-

China announces draconian net regulations
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1567001/china-announces-draconian-net-regulations

[Excerpt]
THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA'S Ministry of Industry and Information
Technology is making ISPs and website owners bow to strict rules requiring
website registration with Chinese government agencies.

In a tyrannical move the Chinese government has issued Internet regulations
that mean that all websites must register with it and be whitelisted before
Chinese Internet users will be permitted to access them. ...

-

China moves closer to a smut-free internet
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/12/22/china_white_list/

China, which last week effectively ended its citizens' right to register a .cn
web address, will now only allow access to websites which have been fully
registered with the authorities. Individuals will now need a business licence
to register a web address.

The Ministry of Industry and Information released more details of measures it
says are designed to remove pornographic content from China's version of the
internet. The reality is that changes are likely to remove a lot more than just
smut.

The five points include a blacklist of individuals who have previously breached
the rules to stop them registering new domains.

The Ministry will also tighten existing registration requirements and more
importantly websites which are not registered will not resolve for Chinese
surfers. Obviously millions of sites which are not based in China do not
typically bother to register with MIIT. These sites will now be invisible in
China.

MIIT has already banned three companies from offering domain name services
until they tighten up procedures.

Assuming the scheme goes ahead it will effectively create a white list of
websites deemed acceptable for Chinese citizens to visit. If you're not on the
list, no Chinese resident is going to be able to see your website. Danwei.org
has more details.

The changes will also hit domestic Chinese websites which pre-date the
registration requirements - they will now also need to register.
---

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