China police tighten cyber security

The Chinese government will begin embedding police officers at some internet companies, The Financial Times reports, in an effort to better enforce its notoriously strict web censorship policies. This will also be done for websites so that authorities can act faster against online behaviors that are illegal in China.

China is planning to arrange “community security workplaces” in main Internet corporations and for web sites so authorities can transfer extra shortly towards unlawful on-line behaviour, the Ministry of Public Security stated in a press release. These network security offices will be set up inside of the influential website and internet firms so that the illegal behaviors can be caught at the earliest.

The Ministry did not disclosed the companies that will receive the new police units.

“While the Chinese government is known for its obsession with Internet control, the draft law sends a clear and chilling message of intent to further control online expression”, Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement this week.

China’s Ministry of Public Security will set up the units at key websites and Internet companies to help them prevent crimes such as fraud and “spreading of rumors”, China’s official Xinhua news service said late Tuesday.

Cybersecurity has been an irksome area in relations with economic partners like the United States and the European Union, which see many recently proposed rules as unfair to foreign companies.

The law will strengthen user privacy protection from hackers and data resellers, but it also increases the government’s powers to obtain records on, and block dissemination of, private information deemed illegal or politically sensitive. In addition to new laws regarding the internet and technology firms, the Chinese Parliament also passed other national security laws that tighten the governments control in culture, politics, the economy and the environment.