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China's new internet rules further restricts religious content

Already there are cases of religious affairs officers deleting retweeted news about local church issues
China's new internet rules further restricts religious content

A warning message says that an online post has violated relevant regulations and has been removed. (Screen grab from ucanews.com WeChat public account)

Published: May 17, 2017 08:51 AM GMT
Updated: May 17, 2017 08:57 AM GMT

Catholic webmasters are feeling claustrophobic a month before China's new internet regulations come into effect.

The Cyberspace Administration of China issued the Provision for the Administration of Internet News on May 2 requiring online outlets using mobile apps, forums, blogs, instant messaging or webcasts as a medium must be licensed or face prosecution.

No one can produce, reproduce, publish or disseminate any prohibited information. News content providers and readers must register using their real names, according to the provision.

Though the regulation will come into effect on June 1 the tighter censorship has already been felt.

A church media source operating outside China uses WeChat to reach mainland readers but has failed repeatedly to avoid censorship when uploading audio-visual programs recently.

"The situation has existed for a while already. We are considering setting up our own website instead. After all, the WeChat platform is not under our control," said John, director of the Catholic media outlet, who does not want to reveal his full name.

WeChat is a popular social media app with 600 million registered users in China. Besides individual accounts, it also provides public accounts for famous individuals, governments, media and enterprises to propagate messages and raise their popularity.

"We have read reports about the new regulation but there is not much information about it yet so we have been thinking about ways to deal with the situation once it is implemented," said John.

 

Religion targeted

China has 731 million internet users and 91 percent use their mobile phone to go online, as of January. According to the Cyberspace Administration, the provision was formulated as early as 2005 but it could not match fast developments such as "fake news," paid news and other irregularities that have violated — according to the state — the "interests of internet users."

The authorities stepped up their campaign to control the internet in 2014 when President Xi Jinping assumed the head of the Office of the Central Leading Group for Cyberspace Affairs. He stressed the issue of network sovereignty twice in a study class for the Communist Politburo in October 2016 and again at the opening of the Third World Internet Conference in November 2016.

Online religion was also highlighted by Xi in the National Conference of Religious Work in April.

 

Removing religious news on social media

Online evangelization and religious content on social media has been thriving recently and it is unclear how the new situation will effect things.

More than 50 dioceses, parishes and lay Catholic groups have registered WeChat public accounts to promote church activities, news and catechistical knowledge. However, a number of them are stagnant without updates.

Since February, Christians have complained that their audio programs had been removed from Ximalaya, a popular podcast website and mobile app with 200 million users.

A diocesan webmaster in eastern China told ucanews.com that religious affairs officers had been examining the content of their WeChat public account recently.

"They removed a lot of retweeted news, especially anything about big church events with many participants. The officials just want everyone to practice their faith at home," said the webmaster who asked not to be named.

Stephen, a webmaster in northern China, believed the new provision was pushed through against a background of a social media usage increasingly being beyond the government's control and emerging conflicts among political fractions in the Party.

"Many people are retweeting news from outside which the authority does not want the public to know. So the authorities simply draws a line for all and does not let you speak," said Stephen, adding that it would be very difficult to get a license under the new regulations.

He did not think the provision will affect them for the moment as diocesan news does not attract much attention while "the target is to deter social media from exposing bad news related to the government."

Stephen said that "tweets and news about the persecution of the church, detention of clergy, disputes on church property and illicit ordination without papal approval would be censored."

"If that is so, we can only rely on church media outside China to voice out for us," said Stephen.

In central Shanxi province, another webmaster Father Francis said he would "try to not publish something that is radical in the eyes of the authorities."  

The priest said he understood the new measures because "the domestic situation is very complex" but he disagreed about the way it is being done.

"Instead, the authorities should find out and correct problems to quell people's anger and give people freedom and inner peace," said Father Francis.

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