China to tighten control over Internet websites

Hong Kong

CHINA is moving to tighten its grip over the Internet through draft rules that effectively ban Web addresses not approved by local authorities, including possibly the most widely used .com and .org addresses.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is seeking feedback on regulations proposing that Internet domain names offering "domestic access" should only be provided by services supervised by the government, according to a notice posted on the regulator's website. Domain names are Web locations such as .net or .cn and under the proposal, their providers have to apply to the ministry for approval before Web addresses are allowed to operate.