FURTHER UPDATE: Authorities in major cities across China have moved to close down large swathes of the Internet, targeting “interactive” sites ahead of the Communist Party congress in mid-October, according to netizens, government Web sites, and service providers.Participatory Web sites, forums, and blogging platforms came under strict new rules last week. But in an unprecedented move, the authorities have begun switching off entire Internet data centers (IDCs), which are home to thousands of servers.This means that if one site doesn’t meet government approval, because it contains pornography or politically sensitive material, all are taken offline.
[Read the full Web story from RFA in English]
Also, here are translated excerpts translated by the Mandarin service selected from their recent reporting on this issue:
“Zi Tian Net”, an IDC based in Luoyang, Henan province was forced to shut down due to emergence of alleged “illegal information”, an accusation filed by the Ministry of Information. As the IDC was shut down without warning, over 10 thousand websites were disconnected, affecting millions of web users.
Miss Yang from “Zi Tian Net” service center tells our reporter Yan Xiu that the so-called “illegal information” is actually a porn-related message posted by an unknown person at a website forum in Wuhan, Hubei province. Miss Yang says that according to their investigation, this porn message was an advertisement of junk mail nature. It is linked to another porn site. Miss Yang stressed that it has nothing to do with their server and their clients. “One of the most affected clients is a free statistic website which has more than 70 servers. Among the 10 thousand affected websites, many of them are government and business websites”, says Miss Yang.
Miss Yang said that until Monday, Aug. 27th, half of their websites still remained shut down. She said that their company had contacted the proper department, but what they were told was that the websites would not be re-opened until after the 17th CCP congress, which is scheduled to open in Beijing in mid-October. Miss Yang says that they were told “We’d rather wrongly close a thousand websites than letting a single website post the “illegal information”.
Miss Yang hopes that more people care about the interest of web owners, “nowadays someone care about migrant workers, but no one cares about the interests of those web owners who are in the tens of thousands”, says Miss Yang.
Cyber dissident Wu Wei says Chinese authorities have been using administrative orders to tackle such issues. They never consider the interest of web users. “The only thing Chinese officials fear is the political error which may ruin them political future. They’d rather use simple and harsh ways to deal with such issues”, says Wu Wei.
The following reported is filed by HK based reporter Yan Ming on Sept. 3th.
Prior to the opening of 17th CCP congress, China tightens up control of the Internet. Two Internet service providers from the city of Chengdu and Guangdong province were un-plugged, affecting at least 600 websites. Meanwhile, a web shutdown campaign has begun in Guangdong province.
The two internet service providers are “Century East” of Chengdu, Sichuan province and “Zhong Ke Techology” of Shantou, Guangdong province. Announcement made by “Century East” says that as illegal information was found in their forum, public security department has ordered them to close all forums, BBS and blogs. The announcement says it is not a sure thing that their forum may resume after the 17th party congress.
A customer service representative from “Century East” told Yan Ming that all their clients have shut down their business and they are not sure when the business may resume.
Another customer service representative from “Zhong Ke Technology” says that service was disrupted without any warning and his company has to bear the economic loss.
The following report is filed by HK based reporter Xin Yu on Sept. 4th.
Siquan.org, a website focusing on rights stories was recently shut down by Chinese authorities. Service provider says BBS won’t resume until the 17th party congress is over. Violators may be fined 2 million yuan.
A message displayed on siquan.org reads “due to……reasons, the forum is closed”.
Wang Jiyong, manager of siquan.org told Mandarin reporter Xin Yu that his website was closed on Sept. 1st. “Many users from all over the country call me, telling me that they can’t have access to my website. After contacting our service provider, we learned that forums like what we have, have to be shut down prior to the 17th party congress,” says Wang.
He complains that ordinary Chinese have to shut their mouth up just because CCP will hold a meeting. He says that the forum is the only channel to vent out their opinions as TVs and radios are all controlled by the government.
Wang Jiyong also told Xin Yu that right after his website was shut down, local government officials came to him and warned him not to conduct any rights-related activities.
RFA reporter contacted siquan.org’s server which is located in Chongqing, Sichuan province.
An employee of the service provider confirmed the closure of siquan.org but blamed the Ministry of Information for the closure. “a notice from the Ministry requested all web forums, BBS and blogs to shut down and remain so until the close of 17th party congress. If your website has forums, then the forums have to be shut down in order to re-open later on”, says the male employee.
He also says that any violators of the new rule may be subject to two million yuan in fine.
Mr. Liang, manager of siquan.org told Xin Yu that what happened now is normal in China, but he did not expect the upcoming 17th party congress to bring more restrictions than the previous one. “freedom of speech has been deprived”, says Mr. Liang.
You can find these reports in Chinese, picked up by Boxun, here, here and here.
UPDATE: It now seems that the mass closure of Internet Data Centers (IDCs) in China isn’t confined to Shantou. Shanghai-based blogger Wang Jianshuo has this post…
It seems the pressure from top really makes people take it seriously. These days, all kinds of people are busy.
Telecom companies are busy unplugging Internet cables for data centers one by one.
Hosting companies that were already shut down are either busy finding out solutions for the closed sites, or handling waves of customer complaints, or both.
Those hosting company or sites which were lucky enough not have been shut down are busy shutting down “interactive sites” themselves, to avoid the whole data center running into bigger problems.
Bigger websites are preparing contingency plans about what they will do when they are shut down.
All kinds of small site webmasters, or independent bloggers are busy signing up hosting package from abroad (I would be interested to know how many more orders bluehost, dreamhost, or ipowerweb got from China these days)
Bloggers hosting their blog on BSP can only keep their fingers crossed and pray for their little blog.
while Danwei links to other reports and comments on the issue.
With the approach of the 17th Party Congress that begins on October 15, it seems that China’s Net Nanny is in overdrive. Chinese bloggers are not pleased.
Chapi seemed to have a source inside the Shanghai IDC
By 8.10 p.m. on Sept. 3, the disaster had arrived at the Shanghai’s Waigaoqiao IDC, where more than 30 computers were switched off, affecting more than 20 servers. The number of servers being closed continued to rise. Everyone was trying to second-guess whether Shanghai would also end up with the entire IDC shut down?
As Tangos writes, on the China Web 2.0 Review blog…
The situation is getting worse. IDCs in China are required to take self-discipline actions to close all BBSs, forums, Blogs, message boards or any kinds of interactive features in their hosted servers or virtual spaces, otherwise the whole IDCs may be closed completely. So if you want to start blogging, you may have to switch to a blogging service provider who has signed self-discipline pact, or to use a hosting service from abroad, such as Digital Nomads Project.
RFA’s Cantonese service has been reporting on what appears to be a wave of new restrictions on Internet service users in China. Service director Shiny Li sent us these details, which you can read in Chinese here. They have managed to get direct confirmation from Lanmang and from the Shantou police. You can also read the new set of regulations (in Chinese) governing BBS, a shorthand for any interactive site, it seems, on the Web site of the telecommunications office of the Guangdong provincial government:
Authorities in the southern port city of Shantou are believed to have shut down an Internet service provider in the city. The company confirmed that more than 1,000 of their communication networks had been disconnected after alleged illegal content was discovered by police.
The company is in Xiamen but makes use of telecommunications services in Shantou, Guangdong.
A spokeswoman for the Xiamen Lanmang Internet Co. said: “Some of our (Internet) clients posted some illegal blogs on the web. The Shantao police are investigating some kind of blogs consisting of illegal information at the moment so some of our equipment has to be shut down.”
About 1,000 main computers were affected and they might move all these computers to Xiamen to continue to operate, according to the spokeswoman.
A police officer in the Shantou police department said: “The Shantou Telecommunications Department is in the process of clearing some illegal information on the blogs. They found some illegal information in the Lan Mang and they are investigating the incident now. It wasn’t the police department who put restrictions on the company.” He believed more Internet companies would be closed down in the clearing action by local telecommunications departments.
The Luo Wu Jie Forum was affected by this wave of action. The Web master said, “They should find another way to crack down on illegal information, which doesn’t affect some Web sites which do not have illegal information.”
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