It seems that according to the Ministry of Culture, we internet people just can't be regulated enough. At China's Seventh International Internet Culture Exposition, officials spoke of the need for both an online ratings system (much like there is for movies) and a "real-name system." Forcing netizens to register with the government before going online has been debated before, and the MoC still didn't explain this time around how it expects to accomplish that kind of task. more ›

It's been nearly half a year since the riots in Xinjiang happened. For us outside of the "new frontier," getting news about the state of affairs is difficult, if possible at all: the internet has been thoroughly tightened since the riots, blocking just about everything not hosted inside the province. Very little information flows in or out, so most of our updates have been from Far West China, a great blog on the trials of living in Xinjiang, especially in the wake of this year's tumult. more ›

China’s Ministry of Health recently denied the existence of so-called ‘internet addiction’ as a problem for Chinese youth. You heard correctly- the ‘land of a thousand internet-addiction camps’ is apparently conflicted over whether to electrocute the problem out of its children or to simply ignore it entirely. more ›

• China's internet 'spin doctors' [BBC] China is using an increasing number of paid "internet commentators" in a sophisticated attempt to control public opinion. These commentators are used by government departments to scour the internet for bad news - and then negate it. They post comments on websites and forums that spin bad news into good in an attempt to shape public opinion.
• Why Western Media Mistakes Matter [ChinaGeeks] Every time we post something critical of a story in the Western media — which, for the record, isn’t that often, about 20 posts of our total 197 — this question gets asked. Yesterday it was commenter Hemulen, who phrased it thusly: "I don’t understand why you spend so much time criticizing Western media for not getting everything exactly right and being 100 per cent accurate." It’s a valid question, or at least, one to which the answer might not be readily apparent. After all, the Chinese media routinely commits graver ethical sins as a matter of policy. Shouldn’t we be going after them, instead?
• HIV prostitute' blog hoax zooms on cyber-privacy [China Daily] "A blog that falsely proclaimed that a Hebei province woman is HIV positive was a hoax by an ex-boyfriend intent upon revenge - and a case study into the debate about people's right of privacy in cyberspace. The woman, Yan Deli, a native in Hebei province, tested negative for HIV/AIDS Monday by the local disease control center. Police of Rongcheng county in Hebei province said the blog with indecent photos and words was written by Yan's ex-lover surnamed Yang, in a bid to get revenge on Yan. Yan met Yang in Beijing."