A few bricks were lifted from the Great Firewall of China for three days during last week in Beijing as China hosted the World Internet Conference from the 19th to 21st of November.
The conference was a meeting of representatives of local Internet giants, such as Alibaba and executives from international tech corporations such as LinkedIn and SoftBank. Chinese authorities block access to Western social media and news websites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, but occasionally lift these controls for the attendees of high profile international events. This was also done earlier in November for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum which was hosted in the Chinese capital.
The move does not signal that China is becoming lenient with their restrictions. In fact, the opposite is true outside of these events with the country increasing web filtering of other websites and targeting those which funnel through Verizon Communications’ EdgeCast network. Verizon published a blog post about China’s restrictions, stating that they were unfounded and caused frustrations within the content delivery and hosting industries.
According to Lu Wei, the minister of China’s new Cyberspace Administration, the country will be hosting a summit in Wuzhen to “give a panoramic view for the first time of the concept of the development of China’s Internet and its achievements”. The regulator is staging the events taking place in China and is confident that China will thereby strengthen its ties to the US.
China’s Internet – What About Freedom of Speech?
China’s move to increase their role and influence in the world of internet governance is subject to scrutiny by groups such Greatfire.org, which advocates anti-censorship principles and freedom of speech on the internet. Most of the world has allowed the internet to remain censorship-free and it is doubtful that China will want to align themselves with international norms any time soon.
However, if China does want to be taken seriously, perhaps a move towards leniency may benefit the country’s corporations and government, and have a massive ripple effect to nationwide internet users. It may create a revolution and that may be one which China is trying to avoid, but some middle ground needs to be established.