FITUG e.V.
Förderverein Informationstechnik und Gesellschaft
FITUG e.V.Förderverein Informationstechnik und Gesellschaft |
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------- Forwarded message follows ------- Date sent: Thu, 28 Dec 2000 18:11:48 -0500 From: David Banisar <banisar@privacy.org> Subject: New China Online Subversion Law To: Global Internet Liberty Campaign <gilc-plan@gilc.org> Send reply to: gilc-plan@gilc.org
Today: December 28, 2000 at 9:10:55 PST
China: Online Subversion Illegal ASSOCIATED PRESS
BEIJING (AP) -- China's legislature on Thursday passed a law against online subversion, ratifying the communist government's sweeping efforts to extend its political controls into cyberspace.
The measure also makes it illegal to produce or transmit computer viruses or to break into military computer networks, the official Xinhua News Agency said without giving any details on penalties.
The law adds to mounting efforts to regulate online activity after a period when largely unregulated cyberspace offered a forum to critics of the government.
Official task forces already try to block access to Web sites deemed undesirable. Service providers are required to guard against political activity, and businesses that offer Web access without required licenses have been closed in a series of crackdowns.
Beijing already is using other laws to attack unwanted online activity. A Shanghai software entrepreneur was released earlier this year after 18 months in prison on charges that he gave e-mail addresses to dissidents abroad.
Police shut down a dissident-run Beijing Web site in August on the grounds that it contained "counterrevolutionary content."
Online crime also is reported to be growing. State media have reported online fraud and cases of hackers breaking into computers at banks and stock brokerages. Newspapers said earlier this year that police in at least 20 cities have set up units to combat online crime.
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