Annual Report on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders in China ...

<strong>Annual</strong> <strong>Report</strong> on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders in China (2009)April 26, 2010tighten the registration process, requiring domain name applicants to provide morecomprehensive personal information.This was not the first time the authorities used online registration processes as a means tocontrol access to and expression on the internet. In May 2009, the Hangzhou MunicipalGovernment issued a new set of regulations requiring netizens to register with their realname and identification numbers with Hangzhou-based internet service providers (ISPs)when setting up blogs, posting on online forums, or using other internet services.However, there were strong doubts about the effectiveness of the measures as netizenscould easily avoid registering with companies based in Hangzhou. The Hangzhougovernment eventually abandoned the effort due to widespread non-compliance by ISPsbased in the city. 56The Hangzhou regulations were one of three similar experiments by local governmentsseeking to limit dissent through registering netizens. However, all measures wereultimately unsuccessful as they met strong opposition from both netizens and ISPs, whoargued that the measures were unrealistic, difficult to implement and harmful tobusinesses. 57 It remains to be seen what will happen with the latest notice from MIIT.e. Cyber informantsThe Chinese government continues to employ and recruit cyber informants and “fiftycent gang” 58 members, individuals who are paid or who volunteer to monitor, interferewith, or censor the content of internet forums. CHRD does not currently have an estimateregarding the number of cyber censors, but a June 18 article in the Beijing Youth Dailyreported that the Beijing municipal government was seeking 10,000 people “from allwalks of life” to help in deleting “harmful” content and monitoring the activity on theinternet. 59f. Online dissentAs mentioned above, popular resistance by internet users has forced the government toback down on a number of key censorship initiatives. Affirming the importance offreedom of expression and access to information, a group of fifteen Chinese bloggers,writers, scholars, and lawyers published a “Declaration of Netizens’ Rights,” on October8, and they further called upon the government to establish a “China Internet HumanRights Day.” 60 Lawsuits and internet campaigns were also popular methods of pushingback against censorship in the past year.A number of netizens took the government or their ISPs to court when their blogs orwebsites were shut down by the authorities. Though few cases were accepted by thecourts, and even fewer received favorable rulings, CHRD did document a couple ofsurprise success stories from 2009. On March 30, Beijing academic Hu Xingdou (sued Beijing's Xinwang Company after it closed his website for a day because itcontained allegedly “illegal content.” The court ruled that Xinwang failed to prove that星 胡) 斗17