According to media reports, a well-known blog website has recently had its domain name resolution service stopped by a domain name resolution provider on the grounds that the site contains illegal content. However, the management of the website informed the media that the website was blocked due to an illegal content that has been deleted. The author happens to know the reporter who wrote the news. After a phone call, I learned that the real situation is that the article may have been deleted at that time, but some servers had not had time to synchronize, so the content monitors could still see the article.
If the above statement is true, then the website should be very innocent. The characteristics of the blog service determine that all content on the website is contributed by users. In theory, the entire Internet can publish content on the website. According to the requirements of the Chinese government, such websites must monitor the content in real time. The blog website is operated commercially. The company has also established a monitoring system in accordance with the government's requirements, and has discovered problematic content and deleted it. In this case, the domain name resolution was still stopped due to insurmountable technical reasons (the author speculates that this technical reason may also be related to the interoperability obstacles of China's telecommunications and China Unicom), which is obviously problematic.
The core problem is that this website operates in compliance with the law and has no fault, but it has been severely punished - it has been stopped from operating, which is a huge blow because the core value of a commercial website - the stability of its services has been It is damaged and will also affect the rights and interests of hundreds of thousands of netizens who open blogs on this site. The author believes that in order to promote industrial development and protect corporate individuals engaged in the industry, it is time to reflect on the Internet content supervision system from the perspective of the rule of law.
The current situation is that various government departments are rectifying the Internet industry. During the rectification process, servers and even entire computer rooms of various websites have been unplugged from time to time, IP addresses have been blocked, domain name resolution has been stopped, etc. Many websites have also been required to submit Enter the server root password. Although these measures have cracked down on the spread of reactionary and obscene information, they are also because they are not precise enough in terms of the system. Websites with any minor problems will be blocked with a stick, which has dealt a heavy blow to the Internet industry, starting from the upstream foundation. Operators, IDC, large, medium and small websites have all been greatly affected. Even officials from the Internet Association representing the government issued a statement: "A very small number of managers have adopted some simple measures to disconnect the Internet. This can be done in a short time. But it will not solve the fundamental problem for a long time, and may even affect the development of the entire Internet industry."
The author believes that for the current management of the Internet industry, the government can take a more sophisticated approach, that is, strengthen the legal management of the Internet. In this way, it can not only achieve the long-term purpose of maintaining social stability and prevent the spread of pornographic information, but also promote The development of the Internet industry realizes the dual promotion of investment and employment. The key to realizing the legalization of Internet management lies in the following aspects:
1. Clarify the management responsibilities of various government departments. The current management status is water control in Kowloon. The Internet, radio and television, culture, publishing, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, telecom operators, etc. can all manage Internet content, and there are many overlapping parts of power. There are many political branches, which often results in operators being at a loss. The most typical example is the dispute between the two major ministries over the approval authority of the World of Warcraft game. For business development, companies obviously hope that they will face as few government departments as possible, and the division of labor and responsibilities will be as clear as possible.
2. The definition of illegal information needs to be clarified. The current definition of illegal information is basically based on the nine situations stipulated in the "Internet Information Service Management Measures" promulgated by the State Council. However, this classification method is actually very vague. Mature commercial information providers need to be more clear. Definition and predictability, otherwise the stability of the service will not be guaranteed. Recently, "Xiaonei.com" was renamed "Renren.com" at the request of the government, and the social game "Stealing Cai" was asked to be renamed "Zhaicai". These changes are largely related to the subjective will of officials, but this change is obviously It is something that commercial service providers cannot predict in advance.
3. Crack down on illegal websites while protecting law-abiding operators. Violators are punished and law-abiding people are protected. This is one of the most basic principles of a society governed by the rule of law. However, during this Internet rectification, a large number of law-abiding websites were banned just because they were on the same server host or even the same computer room as the offenders. The network cable was unplugged and operations stopped. If a blog user publishes illegal information, the entire blog website will be suspended from service. The author believes that the crackdown on illegal websites should not implicate law-abiding websites. The crackdown on law-abiding websites will seriously damage the business environment of the Internet industry and affect corresponding investment and employment.
4. Provide judicial relief channels for managed websites. Government departments exercise administrative power to manage the Internet. From a legal perspective, since it is power, they should provide corresponding judicial relief channels. Taking website suspension analysis as an example, it is actually an administrative penalty to stop the operation of the website. Since it is a punishment, there should be complete evidence collection and complete penalty decision procedures, and be sent to the website operator. If website operators are dissatisfied, they can seek relief from the court. But at present, the corresponding site closure notices are often delivered by phone or even instant messaging tools. Internet operators often do not know which government department requested it after their sites are blocked. This is obviously far from the requirements of governing the country according to law.
As a business lawyer, I believe that if the above problems cannot be effectively solved, it will have an adverse impact on the future development of China's Internet industry. Domestically, it will reduce investment and employment opportunities. Internationally, it will make our country become more competitive with other countries in the international competition. the gap between.
The author of this article: You Yunting, intellectual property lawyer at Shanghai Zhonghui Law Firm, Tel: 8621-22116000, Email: yytbest(@gmail.com), this article only represents my personal views.