China has issued new regulations on the filtering of mobile phone short-text messages in a move that expands its censorship controls over wireless technologies and the Internet, state press said yesterday.
The "Self-Discipline Standards on Content in Mobile Short Messaging Services" were issued recently and are aimed at weeding out pornographic, fraudulent and illicit messages, Xinhua news agency reported.
The standards provide the framework for China Mobile Corp, the country's largest mobile phone service provider, to contract out the policing and filtering of short messages for content deemed unhealthy or fraudulent, the report said.
PHOTO: AP
So far 10 such companies have begun the policing work in 20 categories of content that are spelt out in an earlier agreement or "treaty" on content between the government and Internet Service Providers.
China maintains some of the toughest Internet regulations in the world and has reportedly up to 30,000 people policing the Internet for subversive political content and pornography.
"Cyber-dissidents" who post political views on the Internet that are opposed to official Communist Party views are routinely rounded up and jailed for subversion.
According to the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders, the new short-messaging regulations could further lead to the crackdown on political dissidents sending messages via mobile short messages.
"The Chinese authorities are making ever greater use of new technology to control the circulation of news and information. In the past months we have been witnessing a real downturn in press freedom particularly on the Internet," the group said in a statement.
"The international community should react against this hardening by the Chinese regime," the statement said.
It said that instant text messaging helped expose the governments attempts to cover up the SARS outbreak last year.
According to the group, the Chinese firm Venus Info Tech Ltd, has already begun to filter mobile phone messages for key words to pinpoint "reactionary" text senders.
"Its surveillance system would allow it to home in on `false political rumors' and `reactionary remarks' among others," Reporters Without Borders said, citing a press release from the company.
According to Xinhua, over 220 billion text messages were sent in China last year, making up some 55 percent of the world's text messages.
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
ECONOMIC BOOST: Should the more than 23 million people eligible for the NT$10,000 handouts spend them the same way as in 2023, GDP could rise 0.5 percent, an official said Universal cash handouts of NT$10,000 (US$330) are to be disbursed late next month at the earliest — including to permanent residents and foreign residents married to Taiwanese — pending legislative approval, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例). The NT$550 billion special budget includes NT$236 billion for the cash handouts, plus an additional NT$20 billion set aside as reserve funds, expected to be used to support industries. Handouts might begin one month after the bill is promulgated and would be completed within
NO CHANGE: The TRA makes clear that the US does not consider the status of Taiwan to have been determined by WWII-era documents, a former AIT deputy director said The American Institute in Taiwan’s (AIT) comments that World War-II era documents do not determine Taiwan’s political status accurately conveyed the US’ stance, the US Department of State said. An AIT spokesperson on Saturday said that a Chinese official mischaracterized World War II-era documents as stating that Taiwan was ceded to the China. The remarks from the US’ de facto embassy in Taiwan drew criticism from the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation, whose director said the comments put Taiwan in danger. The Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday reported that a US State Department spokesperson confirmed the AIT’s position. They added that the US would continue to
IMPORTANT BACKER: China seeks to expel US influence from the Indo-Pacific region and supplant Washington as the global leader, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng said China is preparing for war to seize Taiwan, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said in Washington on Friday, warning that Taiwan’s fall would trigger a regional “domino effect” endangering US security. In a speech titled “Maintaining the Peaceful and Stable Status Quo Across the Taiwan Strait is in Line with the Shared Interests of Taiwan and the United States,” Chiu said Taiwan’s strategic importance is “closely tied” to US interests. Geopolitically, Taiwan sits in a “core position” in the first island chain — an arc stretching from Japan, through Taiwan and the Philippines, to Borneo, which is shared by
RSS