All Chinese-run websites that fail to register with telecommunications authorities before June 30 will be temporarily closed down, state media said on Friday.
The announcement was made on Friday by the Ministry of Information Industry in a bid ”to control domestic internet information services,” the Xinhua news agency said.
The temporarily closed sites will then have another ten days to comply before being shut down permanently.
The move is the latest in China’s efforts to police the internet and follow stringent efforts — known as the Great Firewall of China — to keep content authorities deem as ”unhealthy” such as anti-government postings, off the web.
China already requires all users of internet cafes to register before using the internet, while major websites have signed onto a code of conduct to keep non-authorised content off their websites and chat rooms.
The Chinese government forecasts the country will have 120-million internet users by the end of 2005, a figure that would mark a growth of nearly 28% from 94-million at the end of 2004. ‒Sapa-AFP