Yeah, this is one of those watershed moments that you normally don’t pay attention to, because you’re too busy jamming cocaine cubes into your noses. But, amidst all the awesomeness and fun, China just declared news printed on the internet illegal. If you want to post ‘current affairs’, you’ll need to get it from state sponsored news agencies. This is their verbiage, not mines.
China’s top internet regulator ordered major online companies including Sina Corp. and Tencent Holdings Ltd. to stop original news reporting, the latest effort by the government to tighten its grip over the country’s web and information industries.
The Cyberspace Administration of China imposed the ban on several major news portals, including Sohu.com Inc. and NetEase Inc., Chinese media reported in identically worded articles citing an unidentified official from the agency’s Beijing office. The companies have “seriously violated” internet regulations by carrying plenty of news content obtained through original reporting, causing “huge negative effects,” according to a report that appeared in The Paper on Sunday.
The agency instructed the operators of mobile and online news services to dismantle “current-affairs news” operations on Friday, after earlier calling a halt to such activity at Tencent, according to people familiar with the situation. Like its peers, Asia’s largest internet company had developed a news operation and grown its team. Henceforth, they and other services can only carry reports provided by government-controlled print or online media, the people said, asking not to be identified because the issue is politically sensitive.
The sweeping ban gives authorities near-absolute control over online news and political discourse, in keeping with a broader crackdown on information increasingly distributed over the web and mobile devices. President Xi Jinping has stressed that Chinese media must serve the interests of the ruling Communist Party.
Off the top of my head, this is bad news for SOHU and BIDU. Maybe this explains the jump in SPU, as people are drinking the koolaid, literally, and perhaps spiking it with a little life ending arsenic.
If you enjoy the content at iBankCoin, please follow us on Twitter
The Chinese government could be battening down the hatches, preparing for a big storm. I don’t view this as a positive development for freedom or civil liberties.
Taken together with other “developments of late, such as the Chinese president taking full control of the military, it is pretty plain to see they are preparing for war.
“The Cyberspace Administration of China” :/
Watch out for a false flag. Never forget HC is a Chinese operative. She needs the world to look over there, not over here. Wink wink, e mail scandal.
Worrisome indeed.