The China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), a government-controlled body which falls under the Ministry of Information Industry, announced that individuals in China are no longer able to register domain names. The CNNIC will also launch a review of millions of existing personal websites. As of 28th December, applicants in China planning to register a web domain will need to present a company chop (official seal) and valid business license. Previously, individual web domain ownership has been a grey area in China’s regulatory environment. Internet service providers in China are now being required by the CNNIC to review their client base. According to CNNIC, as of June this year, China had 16.3 million domain names – among them, 80% are “.cn”, while the remainder are “.org”, “.net” or “.com”.
Last week, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television closed down some video sharing websites, citing copyright violations and lewd content. Earlier this year, some social media sites were blocked, including YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, as well as local versions of those sites. Source: Financial Times article
