Zittrain said the government might be trying to stem alternative news sites on the model of OhmyNews in South Korea, where thousands of citizens have shaken the traditional media and political establishments by submitting their own reporting.
Earlier this year, authorities ordered all Web sites, including private, noncommercial blogs, to register and identify the person in charge. The new regulations require sites to post only news on current events and politics -- without any commentary, normally a staple of blogs.
"These are really, really clear about no independent commentary," said Mickey Spiegel, a senior researcher on Asia at Human Rights Watch in New York. "You cannot take a story, even an official story, and then run with it or comment on it in a way there was some space to do in the past. You really have to follow the party line."
No-comment provisions
Besides blogs, the no-comment provisions seems to be directed also at portals like Sina and Sohu as well as the discussion forums they host, Spiegel said. Sites that produce or transmit news must obtain a license or register, and the regulations outline some staffing and asset requirements, making it difficult for smaller organizations and individual bloggers to qualify. Violations could result in fines or closure.
The new rules supplement the government's efforts to block foreign news sources through technical filters and to restrict online use by regulating and closing down cybercafes that serve as a primary access point for many Chinese users.
Liu Kang, director of the Chinese media program at Duke University, said the new regulations appear to be more of the same: Banning conduct already prohibited under China's constitution, which he described as "a joke in China because by and large they just ignore it."
But drafting the regulations could serve to inform the public and local authorities that the central government considers Internet control a priority, Liu said.
Complete enforcement is virtually impossible in a country with 100 million Internet users -- second only to the US -- but the rules will let the government "cherry pick" the most troubling cases, said Lewis of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. They also could foster self-censorship, he said.
Nonetheless, he added, resourceful Internet users have typically managed to bypass controls in the past, forcing authorities to regularly "restate the rules in a way to get more compliance from people and close potential loopholes."
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