China has closed more than 13,000 Web sites since the beginning of 2015 for breaking the law or other rules and the vast majority of people support government efforts to clean up cyberspace, state news agency Xinhua said yesterday.
The Chinese government has stepped up already tight controls over the Internet since President Xi Jinping (習近平) took power five years ago, in what critics have said is an effort to restrict freedom of speech and prevent criticism of the Chinese Communist Party.
The Chinese government has said all countries regulate the Internet, and its rules are aimed at ensuring national security and social stability, and preventing the spread of pornography and violent content.
A report to the ongoing session of the Standing Committee of China’s largely rubber-stamp National People’s Congress said the authorities had targeted pornography and violence in their sweeps of Web sites, blogs and social media accounts, Xinhua said.
Almost 10 million accounts had also been closed by Web sites, it added.
It did not give details, but the accounts were likely on social media platforms.
“Internet security concerns the party’s long-term hold on power, the country’s long-term peace and stability, socioeconomic development and the people’s personal interests,” Xinhua said.
More than 90 percent of people surveyed supported government efforts to manage the Internet, with 63.5 percent of them believing that in recent years there has been an obvious reduction in harmful online content, it added.
“These moves have a powerful deterrent effect,” Committee Vice Chairman Wang Shengjun (王勝俊) told lawmakers, Xinhua reported.
Authorities, including the Cyberspace Administration of China, have summoned more than 2,200 Web site operators for talks during the same period, he said.
Separately, Xinhua said that over the past five years, more than 10 million people who refused to register using their real names had had Internet or other telecoms accounts suspended.
China in June ushered in a tough cybersecurity law, following years of fierce debate around the controversial legislation that many foreign business groups fear will hit their ability to operate in the country.
China maintains a strict censorship regime, banning access to many foreign news outlets, search engines and social media including Google and Facebook.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS