Regulating the Internet: China’s Law and Practice

Abstract

Though internet was not commercially available in China until 1995, it has been growing tremendously over the years. At the same time, the Chinese government has never ceased regulating or even censoring internet. This paper provides an overview of the development of internet in China, and the major regulatory schemes that have a direct impact on internet speech. Further, it describes some of the specific measures the Chinese government uses to control the internet: filtering and blocking, imposing liabilities on private parties, access control, internet “police”, and “guiding” public opinion. Finally, it concludes that internet censorship does more harm than good.