Chinese-owned and operated Internet sites were issued an ultimatum by the Communist government: register or close. The country’s crackdown on porn and other "questionable" websites began officially last July.
Reports in the Asia-Pacific press indicate the Chinese Ministry of Information Industry has launched the registration drive as part of a bid to silence porn, fraud, and other "unhealthy" Internet activity.
Sohu.com indicated the tagging deadline is the end of June. By then, officials want to have issued registration numbers to all Chinese-based and operated websites, whether personal, commercial, or governmental. Sohu.com stated that it expects hundreds of thousands of sites to comply, without suggesting an exact figure.
The Chinese Net crackdown already has compelled Internet café users to register before going online and closed a reported 12,000 cyber cafes, mostly for allowing porn access and underage gaming, but some reportedly over a lack of registration.
China’s state news agency, Xinhua, said China's Net population has become the world's second largest behind the United States, growing from 620,000 Netizens in 1997. Critics of the Chinese regime have continuously suggested the Chinese crackdown on porn and fraud may be a convenient screen behind which to pursue politically oriented material the government does not like.
