Regulation of Web Content

The Measures for the Administration of Internet Information Services (MAIIS), issued by the State Council on September 25, 2000, is a basic regulation on Internet information service. Under the MAIIS, all business websites are obliged to obtain a license from government; that for non-profit website must be file the relative documents to the government. The online information services involving news, publishing, education, medicine, health, pharmaceuticals and medical equipment must get the approval of the ministries responsible for these subjects before getting the license. Internet information providers are obliged to monitor their websites in order to remove "harmful information" broadly defined by Article 15.

On September 29, 2002, the State Council issued Statute on the Administration of Places of Business that Provide Internet Access Service, which substituted the Statute on the Administration of Places of Business that Provide Internet Access Services, jointly issued by the Ministry of Information Industry, Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Culture and the State Administration for Industry and Commerce on April 3, 2001. The Statute provide that any locations that provide Internet access services to the public, such as cyber cafes (exclude the intranet service set up by library, school, etc.) must get license from Ministry of Culture and its local counterparts; and the other Ministries are responsible for their respective administrative functions. Apart from general ones, there are regulations for specific areas:

News Transmitting
Under the Interim Provisions for the Administration of Online News Transmitting issued on November 7, 2000, only the News Units controlled by central government and province government can publish the news independently; the composite websites operated by non-news unit, approved by the News Office, can re-publish the news published by the approved news websites but can not publish the news edited by itself or from other sources.