China’s campaign against online rumours, which critics say is crushing free speech, has been highly successful in “cleaning” the Internet, a top official of the country’s internet regulator has said.
China has the world’s most sophisticated online censorship system, known outside the country as the Great Firewall. It blocks many social media websites, such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and others, along with many sites hosted in Taiwan and those of rights groups and some foreign media agencies. The crackdown on online rumours is really intended to quash anti-government discourse, activists say. High profile users of Sina Weibo, China's Twitter-like microblog, have been targeted, apparently for political speech. Ren Xianliang, vice minister of the
State Internet Information Office, emphasised that “The fight against rumours has received a positive response and has been quite effective,” adding, “The Internet has become clean. The frequency of slander has declined, but it has not impacted the orderly flow of information.”
China will work to strengthen regulation of the internet by training local internet regulators and net companies, Ren added, and further “manage” search and microblogs. He reiterated China’s right to block websites with information on Tibetan independence or support for separatists in China’s far western region of Xinjiang saying “This runs counter to China’s laws and regulations.”