Scenario in PRC

Special Issues and Limitations

Internet use has been expanding at such an alarming speed in China. In 2002, there are 46 million net surfers in China, compared with 8.9 million in 2000. However, the Chinese government still lacks experience in regulating the Internet. Xu Youbai, an official with the China National Net Civilizing Project, says that "as a matter of act, some Western countries have much more detailed restrictions on the Internet. Both the United States and Europe have enacted laws regarding rampant online pornography, fraud and defamation" (People's Daily, 2002).

On the other hand, some regulations have hindered the development and survival of ISP, as well as the digital freedom. For instance, the Internet laws regulating the bulletin board systems issued in 2000 have restricted the content of online chatrooms and bulletin boards. BBS providers and web portals will suffer because they will have to supervise their content more closely. Many struggling Chinese online ventures will not have the financial resources to obey the new laws if they are strictly enforced, and liberal ICP that rely on articles from foreign-based news media to attract readers may be hurt as well (DFN, 2000).

Concerning the anonymity feature of the Internet world, the Chinese law can create a 60-day "gate-keeping" period for tracing the real identity of an anonymous libellant. According to the Article 14 in the "Administrative Measures on Internet Information Services" (PRC, 2000), Internet information service providers engaging in services such as news, publication and electronic bulletin services shall record the information content provided and the time of release of the same, and the Internet addresses or domain names. Internet access service providers shall record information such as the log on times of online users, users' account numbers, their Internet addresses or domain names and the telephone numbers from which they call. Internet information service providers and Internet access service providers shall keep back up copies of their records for 60 days and shall provide the same to the relevant State authorities when they make inquiries according to law. Therefore, lawsuit against anonymous writer should be filed within the 60 days period, otherwise the identity of the writer might not be revealed.