Fed Up with Scammers, China Passes New Internet Security Law

The threat of terrorism and fake new is tightening the security reigns of an over-strenuous Chinese Internet regulation. Addressing the gathering at the third World Internet Conference which was recently held at Wuzhen, Chinese officials said that the need of the hour is firmer governance of cyber activity directed towards blocking the organizational ability of militants and checking the spread of baseless news. They also pointed out that the number of fake news articles which were widely circulated during the latest US Presidential elections propelled the victory of the Republican candidate.

The vice minister of China’s authority over the internet, Ren Xianling commented that these measures were similar to the breaking systems that are installed in a car before testing out its performance. It was also recommended that an identification system be employed in order to identify netizens who posted such rumors and fake news to determine the order of response- punishment or response.

China’s Current Internet Regulations

At the end of the first week of November, China passed a new law- Cyber Security Law. According to this, network operators are forced to comply with the stringent security obligations which demands adoption of technical measures which will monitor and record all operation status communicated over the network. Logs must be maintained and all users must be verified through the submission of documents to disclose their identity. Network operators may face a high penalty of RMB 100,000 if a breach in security was identified.

Critical Information Infrastructure Facilities was established to cover sectors like water, electricity, energy, financial infrastructure, transportation, social security and health care.

Enforcement of Cyber Security

The new laws under cyber security will come into effect from June, 2017. This iron-hand surveillance and stringent laws of data requirement has raised concern. China released a statement saying that this move is not targeted towards foreign companies but an attempt to counter cyber terrorism. The officials of UN who were in attendance were speculating the introduction of a multilateral cyber-terrorism treaty. The stalemate over the definition of cyber-terrorism is however stopping the treaty from being conceptualized.

The new law on cyber security and internet regulation joins the other bans that have vexed China. Earlier this year, China banned the testing of autonomous vehicles on the road.