One additional question; what do you mean by political or regulatory issue? You mean that is a grounds for something to be banned?
Also who dictates that certain thing is ban-able from political or regulatory issue and what is the threshold?
I meant that internet content in China is governed by formal laws and regulations, mainly enforced by the Cyberspace Administration of China (国家网信办) and related regulators. Chinese rules such as the 《网络信息内容生态治理规定》 classify online information and require platforms to prohibit illegal content and prevent harmful content, including material that endangers national security, spreads rumors that disrupt social order, promotes extremism or violence, or infringes on others’ rights. Platforms are legally required to monitor and remove such content and regulators can order services restricted or removed if they violate these rules.
Thank you for the reply.
I do find it strange that certain things blocked puzzling. Such as google, youtube, reddit, crunchyroll, hbo. The one I find the most puzzling is reuters, from what I understand are one of the most independent news reporting institute. I don’t claim to know much but from what I read the reason cited is ‘criticism of communist party leaders’. Is it illegal, to criticize leaders in China?
I assume there is more to this right?
Most of the platforms you listed are “banned” largely a result of regulatory and data-governance issues. China requires internet services operating in the mainland market to comply with domestic regulations covering data protection, content management, and licensing, which generally includes managing Chinese user data within the Chinese regulatory framework and cooperating with local oversight. Many large foreign platforms chose not to operate under those requirements, so their services were never integrated into the mainland internet environment.
As for Reuters they aren’t banned per say they simply haven’t obtained the licences required to operate in the mainland (to my knowledge).
That is interesting reason. From what I read, Reuters were just banned and they inquired to the Cyberspace Administration (CAC), they didn’t get any response. If this is to believed to be true then Reuters weren’t notified about needing a license and suddenly blocked and nobody responded when they inquired why were they blocked. And this was in 2015, is there a reason Reuters haven’t managed to obtain such license yet, as according to them 13% of their revenue is from Asia and I assume china was a big part of it.
Also I was unaware news agency needs license to operate in countries. Again apologies if I sound ignorant, but I can’t read chinese and I assume a lot of these information are only covered by chinese news agencies on why were each of those services banned which includes duckduckgo (a search engine) and internet archive (archive.org). I would appreciate if you have any links or sources which cites reason of banns or any news coverage e.g. by licensed chinese news media (I can translate).
Thank you for taking time to answer.
One additional question; what do you mean by political or regulatory issue? You mean that is a grounds for something to be banned? Also who dictates that certain thing is ban-able from political or regulatory issue and what is the threshold?
I meant that internet content in China is governed by formal laws and regulations, mainly enforced by the Cyberspace Administration of China (国家网信办) and related regulators. Chinese rules such as the 《网络信息内容生态治理规定》 classify online information and require platforms to prohibit illegal content and prevent harmful content, including material that endangers national security, spreads rumors that disrupt social order, promotes extremism or violence, or infringes on others’ rights. Platforms are legally required to monitor and remove such content and regulators can order services restricted or removed if they violate these rules.
Thank you for the reply. I do find it strange that certain things blocked puzzling. Such as google, youtube, reddit, crunchyroll, hbo. The one I find the most puzzling is reuters, from what I understand are one of the most independent news reporting institute. I don’t claim to know much but from what I read the reason cited is ‘criticism of communist party leaders’. Is it illegal, to criticize leaders in China? I assume there is more to this right?
Most of the platforms you listed are “banned” largely a result of regulatory and data-governance issues. China requires internet services operating in the mainland market to comply with domestic regulations covering data protection, content management, and licensing, which generally includes managing Chinese user data within the Chinese regulatory framework and cooperating with local oversight. Many large foreign platforms chose not to operate under those requirements, so their services were never integrated into the mainland internet environment.
As for Reuters they aren’t banned per say they simply haven’t obtained the licences required to operate in the mainland (to my knowledge).
That is interesting reason. From what I read, Reuters were just banned and they inquired to the Cyberspace Administration (CAC), they didn’t get any response. If this is to believed to be true then Reuters weren’t notified about needing a license and suddenly blocked and nobody responded when they inquired why were they blocked. And this was in 2015, is there a reason Reuters haven’t managed to obtain such license yet, as according to them 13% of their revenue is from Asia and I assume china was a big part of it.
Also I was unaware news agency needs license to operate in countries. Again apologies if I sound ignorant, but I can’t read chinese and I assume a lot of these information are only covered by chinese news agencies on why were each of those services banned which includes duckduckgo (a search engine) and internet archive (archive.org). I would appreciate if you have any links or sources which cites reason of banns or any news coverage e.g. by licensed chinese news media (I can translate).