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CHINA • Censorship of foreign new sites, • Sites posting information or articles critical of the government • Bulletin board critical of the government Between 1994 and the present, China's rules and regulations on the Internet became progressively more comprehensive, moving from efforts to regulate Internet business to restrictions on news sites and chat rooms. These regulations give the government wide discretion to arrest and punish any form of expression. For example, "topics that damage the reputation of the State" are banned, but an Internet user has no way of knowing what topics might be considered injurious. As the regulatory framework evolved, the Chinese government shifted primary responsibility for control of the Internet from the Ministry for Public Security to the Internet service providers themselves. In 1994, one year before the Internet became commercially available for individuals in China, the State Council issued the "PRC Regulations for the Safety Protection of Computer Information Systems" (4) which gave the Ministry of Public Security overall responsibility for supervision of the Internet. According to Article 17 of the Regulations, Public Security is entitled to "supervise, inspect and guide the security protection work," "investigate and prosecute illegal criminal cases" and "perform other supervising duties." In February 1996, the State Council issued rules on the connection between China's domestic network and the international Internet. (5) These regulations began to shift some of the responsibility for control of content to the Internet companies themselves. Article 11 of that order reads: No unit or individual may use the Internet to create, replicate, retrieve, or transmit the following kinds of information: 1.
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