The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) accuses China's government of contributing to a systematic criminalization of ethnic and religious minorities, based on the new Internet policy that will come into effect on March 1. "According to the new Internet policy in China, anyone who passes on information or rumors concerning the problems and conflicts in the settlement areas of the Tibetans, Uyghurs and Mongols is an offender," said the STP's China-expert, Ulrich Delius, in Göttingen on Friday. "In a way, this comes close to a complete information blockade, because information is only allowed to be passed on if it is government-authorized or approved by the censors." The new Internet policy, which had been announced by the state's Internet authority (the Cyberspace Administration of China / CAC) on February 4, 2015, will come into force on March 1, 2015.

The new policy is based on ten rules concerning the Internet – including social media, blogs, online forums, short message services and microblogs. It is not allowed to spread information about the conflicts between ethnic groups or to question the rule of law, the country's sovereignty, territorial integrity and national security. It is strictly forbidden to disseminate any kind of rumors or information opposing to the Chinese laws or the constitution – and it is prohibited to spread extremist content or propaganda for cults. According to the interpretation of Chinese security services, this also includes religious texts of the Muslim and the Buddhist population as well as publications of the banned Falun Gong movement. Internet providers can be held accountable for violations and for the distribution of illegal content.

This next step of tightening online censorship had caused quite a stir, since it is now required that Internet users register by giving the Internet providers their full real name. The Chinese authorities have been working on tracking every single Internet user in person for the last six years. Thus, the new policy is part of a long-term overall strategy to monitor all of the 650 million Internet users in China. Users are allowed to choose an individual username, but it is not allowed to use fantasy names or names of famous persons. Also, individual users are not allowed to try and give the impression of belonging to a government institution or other administrative bodies. In January 2015, the CAC stated that – since November 2014 – it had banned 17 online-addresses because they were too similar to addresses of the Communist Party or the official state media.

"Now, it will be extremely dangerous to exchange ideas concerning the situation in Xinjiang / East Turkestan, Tibet and Inner Mongolia via the Chinese Internet, because the vague wording of the new policy is an open door for arbitrary criminalization. Also, there could be harsh punishments simply for mentioning the banned Falun Gong movement," said Delius.

Header Photo: Flickr/fred chiang