China has issued stricter rules for companies that manage Internet addresses, in a move analysts said was designed to improve service standards as well as tighten control over sensitive information in the burgeoning sector.
Such firms, known in the industry as registrars, must now have a minimum of one million yuan (US$121,000) in start-up capital, at least 15 employees and offer 24-hour customer service, the regulation, issued on Thursday, said. Previous rules had been vague.
They "must have strict and effective filtering mechanisms for cleaning bad and offensive domain names, which should be done once a day," the Ministry of Information Industry, which issued the articles, said on its Web site www.mii.gov.cn.
The firms, which number about 30 so far in China and serve mostly companies with their own Web sites, must also be registered with the powerful Ministry of Culture as proper Internet content providers, it said.
Industry watchers said the new rules formalized government control over the fast-growing Internet domain name sector where not all participants toe the Communist Party line on democracy, free speech and adult content.
"Small companies without an established investment and physical presence are much more likely to disregard regulations," said Nathan Midler, a research manager at IDC Asia Pacific.
"Companies with a substantial investment have a vested interest in cooperating," he said.
Diplomats say Chinese leaders know they must promote the free flow of information on the Internet for China to be a respected member of the international community, but are unwilling to face the potential criticism that freedom of speech can unleash.
Beijing has a special force of at least 30,000 "cyber cops" who patrol the Web, block some foreign news sites and shut down domestic sites with politically incorrect fare.
Crowds in Bangladesh are flocking to snap photographs with an unlikely social media star — an albino buffalo with flowing blond hair nicknamed “Donald Trump” that is due to be sacrificed within days. Owner Zia Uddin Mridha, 38, said his brother named the 700kg bull over its flowing helmet of hair resembling the signature look of the US president. “My younger brother picked this name because of the buffalo’s extraordinary hair,” he said at his farm in Narayanganj, just outside the capital, Dhaka. Mridha said that a constant stream of curious visitors — social media fans, onlookers and children — have come throughout
The Philippines said it has asked the country’s Supreme Court to allow it to arrest former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s chief drug war enforcer to stand trial in an international tribunal. The International Criminal Court (ICC) last week unsealed an arrest warrant against Philippine Senator Ronald dela Rosa, accusing him along with Duterte and other “coperpetrators” of the “crime against humanity of murder.” Dela Rosa briefly sought refuge in the Philippine Senate last week while asking the Philippine Supreme Court to stop an ongoing attempt by government agents to arrest him. “By his own conduct, he has placed himself outside the protection of
It began as a satirical online project. Now millions of young people in India are flocking to it as an outlet for their frustration. A parody political party called the Cockroach Janta Party, with the insect as its symbol, has exploded across India’s social media by turning absurdist humor into protest. Memes and short videos mocking corruption, joblessness and political dysfunction have flooded social media sites, where millions of users are embracing the cockroach — known for its ability to survive harsh conditions — as a tongue-in-cheek symbol of endurance. The online movement’s rise has been unusually rapid. The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)
The researchers in Ireland looked at their computer screen, marveling at a medieval book tracked down in a Roman library. They flipped through its digitized pages and found their sought-after treasure: the oldest surviving English poem. “We were extremely surprised. We were speechless. We couldn’t believe our eyes when we first saw that,” said Elisabetta Magnanti, a visiting research fellow at Trinity College Dublin’s school of English. The poem was also within the main body of Latin text, she said, calling it “extraordinary.” Composed in Old English by a Northumbrian agricultural worker in the 7th century, Caedmon’s Hymn appears within some copies of
RSS