Cyberspace Administration of China
The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC; 中华人民共和国国家互联网信息办公室) is the national internet regulator and censor of the People's Republic of China.[1][2][3][4]
| 国家互联网信息办公室 | |
| Abbreviation | CAC |
|---|---|
| Formation | 2014 |
| Type | Governmental |
| Headquarters | Beijing |
Director | Zhuang Rongwen |
Parent organization | Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission |
| Subsidiaries | China Internet Investment Fund |
| Website | www |
| Cyberspace Administration of China | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simplified Chinese | 国家互联网信息办公室 | ||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 國家互聯網信息辦公室 | ||||||
| Literal meaning | State Internet Information Office | ||||||
| |||||||
Structure
The Cyberspace Administration of China and the executive arm of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission of the Chinese Communist Party are one institution with two names.[5][6][7] The CAC is involved in the formulation and implementation of policy on a variety of issues related to the internet in China. It is under direct jurisdiction of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission, a party institution subordinate to the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.[8] The Director of both the state and party institutions is Zhuang Rongwen,[9] who serves concurrently as the Deputy Head of the CCP's Central Propaganda Department.[10]
The CAC is the majority owner of the China Internet Investment Fund, which has golden share ownership stakes in technology firms such as ByteDance, Weibo Corporation, SenseTime, and Kuaishou.[11][12]
The efforts of the CAC have been linked with a broader push by the Xi Jinping administration, characterized by Xiao Qiang, head of China Digital Times, as a "ferocious assault on civil society." This has included forced confessions of television journalists, military parades, harsh media censorship and more.[13] The CAC additionally organizes the World Internet Conference.[14]
The CAC includes the following departments: an Internet Security Emergency Command Center, an Agency Service Center, and an Illegal and Unhealthy Information Reporting Center.[15] The CAC also maintains some censorship functions, including issuing directives to media companies in China. After a campaign to arrest almost 200 lawyers and activists in China, the CAC published a directive saying that "All websites must, without exception, use as the standard official and authoritative media reports with regards to the detention of trouble-making lawyers by the relevant departments."[13]
Lu Wei, until 2016 the head of the CAC, was previously the head of the Beijing Propaganda Department, and oversaw the Internet Management Office, a "massive human effort" that involved over 60,000 Internet propaganda workers and two million others employed off-payroll. It was this experience that assisted General Secretary Xi Jinping in selecting Lu as the head of the newly formed Internet regulator, the CAC.[16]
Policies
Among the areas the CAC regulates include usernames on the Chinese Internet, the appropriateness of remarks made online, virtual private networks, the content of Internet portals, and much more.
According to a draft Cyber Security Law, made public on July 6, 2015, the CAC works with other Chinese regulators to formulate a catalog of "key network equipment" and "specialized network security products" for certification. The CAC is also involved in reviewing the procurement of network products or services for national security considerations. Data stored outside of China by Chinese companies is also required to undergo CAC approval.[17]
In 2015, the CAC was also responsible for chasing down Internet users and web sites that published "rumors" following an explosion in the port city of Tianjin. Such rumors included claims that blasts killed 1,000 people, or that there was looting, or leadership ructions as a result of the blast.[18] The same year, the CAC debuted a song that Paul Mozur of The New York Times called "a throwback to revolutionary songs glorifying the state." The song included the lines: “Unified with the strength of all living things, Devoted to turning the global village into the most beautiful scene” and “An Internet power: Tell the world that the Chinese Dream is uplifting China.”[19]
The CAC has been given the responsibility for reviewing the security of devices made by foreign countries.[20][21]
In May 2020, the CAC announced a campaign to "clean up" online political and religious content deemed "illegal."[22]
In July 2020, CAC commenced a three-month censorship action on We-Media in China.[23]
In December 2020, CAC removed 105 apps, including that of Tripadvisor, from China's app stores that were deemed "illegal" in a move to "clean up China's internet".[24]
In 2021, CAC launched a hotline to report online comments against the Chinese Communist Party, including comments which it deemed "historical nihilism."[25][26] In 2022, CAC published rules that mandate that all online comments must be pre-reviewed before being published.[27][28]
During the 2022 COVID-19 protests in China, the CAC directed companies such as Tencent and ByteDance to intensify their censorship efforts.[29][30]
In January 2023, CAC ordered any content displaying "gloomy emotions" to be censored during Lunar New Year celebrations as part of its "Spring Festival internet environment rectification" campaign.[31]
Artificial intelligence
In April 2023, CAC proposed rules that content produced by artificial intelligence "must reflect the core values of socialism."[32] In July 2023, CAC announced a licensing requirement for generative artificial intelligence systems.[33]
Cooperation with Russia
Since at least 2017, CAC has cooperated with Russia's principal internet regulator and censor, Roskomnadzor.[34]
Online gaming
In November 2023, CAC imposed a curfew on online gaming for minors. The restrictions included banning children under 18 from gaming between 10 p.m and 8 a.m. In addition to that, these children were restricted to only 90 minutes of online gaming on weekdays and 3 hours on weekends and holidays.[35] Extra restrictions were imposed on spending where 8 to 16 year old gamers were allowed to spend 200 yuan (£22, $29) per month while 16 to 18 year old only 400 yuan per month.[35]
Internet access
In August 2023, CAC proposed regulations to curb perceived internet addiction on minors. These regulations would limit minors between the ages of 16 and 18 to only 2 hours of mobile usage per day although they can be bypassed.[36] Children under the age of 18 will be restricted from accessing the internet between 10 p.m and 6 a.m[37] whereas children under age 8 will be allowed only 8 minutes a day.[37] CAC says that online platforms will be responsible for the execution of the law if passed although the specific penalties were not disclosed in the event of failure to comply.[36] The proposal is open to public feedback [37] until September 2nd 2023.[36]
Reception
The CAC has been accused of assisting in cyber attacks against visitors to Chinese websites. The anti-censorship group GreatFire.org provided data and reports showing man-in-the-middle attacks against major foreign web services, including iCloud, Yahoo, Microsoft, and Google. The attack would have required the ability to "tap into the backbone of the Chinese Internet."[38]
Gibson Research Corporation attributed some of the attacks against GitHub to the CAC's operations. In the attack, ads hosted on Baidu were able to leverage computers visiting from outside China, redirecting their traffic to overload the servers of GitHub. "The tampering takes places someplace between when the traffic enters China and when it hits Baidu's servers," Gibson wrote. "This is consistent with previous malicious actions and points to the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) being directly involved..."[39]
A 2020 investigation by ProPublica and The New York Times found that CAC systematically placed censorship restrictions on Chinese media outlets and social media to avoid mentions of the COVID-19 outbreak, mentions of Li Wenliang, and "activated legions of fake online commenters to flood social sites with distracting chatter".[40]
See also
References
- ^ Cheung, Jennifer (14 July 2015). "China's 'great firewall' just got taller". openDemocracy. from the original on 6 September 2015. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
- ^ Goh, Sophie Yu, Brenda (2020-11-13). "China drafts rules to govern its booming livestreaming sales industry". Reuters. from the original on 2020-12-10. Retrieved 2020-11-29.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "China orders Baidu to clean up low-brow content". CNBC. Reuters. 2020-04-08. from the original on 2020-12-11. Retrieved 2020-11-29.
- ^ "Chinese forum exposes cracks in the internet that could splinter wide open". Radio France Internationale. 2020-11-24. from the original on 2020-11-29. Retrieved 2020-11-29.
- ^ Fedasiuk, Ryan (January 12, 2021). "Buying Silence: The Price of Internet Censorship in China". Jamestown Foundation. from the original on 2021-01-13. Retrieved 2021-01-13.
- ^ Cyberspace Administration of China launches official website 2020-03-11 at the Wayback Machine, English.gov.cn, 31 Dec 2014
- ^ Web of Laws: How China's new Cyberspace Administration is securing its grip on the internet Archived 2019-06-20 at Archive-It, HKFP, by David Bandurski, 7 May 2017
- ^ Caughey, AJ; Lu, Shen (March 11, 2022). "How the CAC became Chinese tech's biggest nightmare". Protocol. from the original on March 18, 2022. Retrieved March 23, 2022.
- ^ Gan, Nectar (September 20, 2018). "Cyberspace controls set to strengthen under China's new internet boss". South China Morning Post. from the original on April 23, 2021. Retrieved April 23, 2021.
- ^ "庄荣文任中央网信办主任 徐麟不再担任". People's Daily. 2018-08-01. from the original on 2020-02-22.
- ^ "China's communist authorities are tightening their grip on the private sector". The Economist. 2021-11-18. ISSN 0013-0613. from the original on 2021-11-22. Retrieved 2021-11-22.
- ^ McGregor, Grady (April 2, 2023). "Golden Grip". The Wire China. Retrieved April 15, 2023.
- ^ a b Qiang, Xiao (September 18, 2015). "Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) Hearing: Urging China's President Xi Jinping to Stop State-Sponsored Human Rights Abuses" (PDF). CECC. CECC. (PDF) from the original on December 8, 2015. Retrieved November 30, 2015.
- ^ Bandurski, David (July 14, 2022). "Taking China's Global Cyber Body to Task". China Media Project. Retrieved July 24, 2022.
- ^ "中央网信办所属事业单位面向社会公开招聘-新华网". Xinhua. from the original on 2015-10-24. Retrieved 2015-10-25.
- ^ Cairns, Christopher Marty (2017). "China's Weibo Experiment: Social Media (Non-) Censorship and Autocratic Responsiveness". doi:10.7298/X41Z42JR.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^ "Cyber security in China" (PDF). Norton Rose Fulbright. July 2015. (PDF) from the original on 2016-03-04.
- ^ "China Cracks Down on Websites Accused of Spreading 'Rumors' About the Tianjin Blast". VICE News. 2015-08-17. from the original on 2015-12-08. Retrieved 2015-11-30.
- ^ "China's Internet Censorship Anthem Is Revealed, Then Deleted". Sinosphere Blog. 2015-02-12. from the original on 2015-09-08. Retrieved 2015-10-21.
- ^ Mozur, Paul; Perlez, Jane (2016-05-16). "China Quietly Targets U.S. Tech Companies in Security Reviews". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. from the original on 2020-01-16. Retrieved 2020-04-22.
- ^ Wang, Yifan (2020-04-27). "China Toughens Procurement Rules for Tech Equipment". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. from the original on 2020-04-27. Retrieved 2020-04-28.
- ^ "The State Cyberspace Administration of the People's Republic of China launched the 2020 "Qinglang" special action for a period of 8 months" (in Chinese). People's Daily. May 22, 2020. from the original on 2020-05-31. Retrieved 2020-06-18.
- ^ Yu, Junjie (29 July 2020). "To safeguard national security, it is time for China to build up nuclear deterrent". Xinhua News Agency. from the original on 2 August 2020. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
- ^ Soo, Zen (December 9, 2020). "China orders removal of 105 apps, including TripAdvisor". Associated Press. from the original on December 9, 2020. Retrieved December 9, 2020.
- ^ Cadell, Cate (2021-04-11). "China launches hotline for netizens to report 'illegal' history comments". Reuters. from the original on 2021-04-13. Retrieved 2021-04-13.
- ^ Costigan, Johanna M. (September 23, 2022). "China's War on History Is Growing". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 2022-09-28.
- ^ Yang, Zeyi (June 18, 2022). "Now China wants to censor online comments". MIT Technology Review. Retrieved 2022-06-22.
- ^ "China revises rules to regulate online comments". Reuters. 2022-11-16. Retrieved 2022-11-16.
- ^ Lin, Liza. "China Clamps Down on Internet as It Seeks to Stamp Out Covid Protests". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2022-12-01.
- ^ Davidson, Helen (2022-12-02). "China brings in 'emergency' level censorship over zero-Covid protests". The Guardian. Retrieved 2023-01-02.
- ^ Hui, Mary (January 19, 2023). "China's internet censors are gearing up for the Lunar New Year covid surge". Quartz. Retrieved January 24, 2023.
- ^ Bandurski, David (April 14, 2023). "Bringing AI to the Party". China Media Project. Retrieved April 15, 2023.
- ^ "China to lay down AI rules with emphasis on content control, Financial Times reports". Reuters. 2023-07-11. Retrieved 2023-07-16.
- ^ Belovodyev, Daniil; Soshnikov, Andrei; Standish, Reid (2023-04-05). "Leaked Files Show China And Russia Sharing Tactics On Internet Control, Censorship". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Retrieved 2023-04-15.
- ^ a b "Video game addiction: China imposes gaming curfew for minors". BBC News. 2019-11-06. Retrieved 2023-08-03.
- ^ a b c Weatherbed, Jess (2023-08-02). "Kids in China face harsh restrictions on internet and mobile use". The Verge. Retrieved 2023-08-03.
- ^ a b c "Tech shares fall as China mulls child smartphone limits". BBC News. 2023-08-03. Retrieved 2023-08-03.
- ^ "An Open Letter to Lu Wei and the Cyberspace Administration of China | GreatFire.org". en.greatfire.org. from the original on 2015-06-30. Retrieved 2015-10-21.
- ^ Gibson Research Corporation (March 31, 2015). "Security Now! #501" (PDF). (PDF) from the original on September 6, 2015.
- ^ Zhong, Raymond; Mozur, Paul; Krolik, Aaron; Kao, Jeff (December 19, 2020). "Leaked Documents Show How China's Army of Paid Internet Trolls Helped Censor the Coronavirus". ProPublica. from the original on December 19, 2020. Retrieved December 19, 2020.
External links
- Official website (in Chinese)