China Announces a Consolidation of Internet Regulation

China has announced that it has created a new agency, the State Internet Information Office (SIIS), that “will direct, coordinate and supervise online content management and handle administrative approval of businesses related to online news reporting”. According to a brief press release from China Daily, the mandate of SIIS will include such functions as supervising online gaming, promoting major news web sites, and monitoring government news releases. The agency will also monitor print publications, videos and television programming. It will have the authority to punish violators and oversee telecommunications companies and ISPs to ensure that they abide by national Internet standards such as assignment of IP addresses and registration of web site domains. Not surprisingly, Western news media have a slightly different take on the announcement. Reuters describes the move as an attempt to unify the “squabbling agencies” that oversee the Chinese Internet, “which Beijing views as both a potential gold mine and a political threat”. James Zimmerman, former Chair of the American Chamber of Commerce, is quoted as saying that he does not think the move is intended to make the system more user-friendly but, rather, to consolidate functions “to better manage the government’s public message and public image”. There are apparently more than 450 million Internet users in China, more than in any other nation in the world. For a news report from The New York Times, visit: http://tinyurl.com/66ncau3 Summary by: Cindy Vergara