HONG KONG • China has held a drill with Internet service providers to practise taking down websites deemed harmful, as the country’s censors tighten control ahead of a sensitive five-yearly political reshuffle set for later this year..
HONG KONG • China has held a drill with Internet service providers to practise taking down websites deemed harmful, as the country’s censors tighten control ahead of a sensitive five-yearly political reshuffle set for later this year.
Internet data centres and cloud companies – which host website servers – were ordered to participate in a three-hour drill on Thursday to hone their « emergency response » skills, according to at least four participants that included the operator of Microsoft’s cloud service in China.
The Ministry of Public Security called for the drill « in order to step up online security for the 19th Party Congress and tackle the problem of smaller websites illegally disseminating harmful information », according to a document circulating online attributed to a cyber police unit in Guangzhou.
An officer who answered the phone in the Guangzhou public security bureau confirmed the drill but declined to elaborate.
President Xi Jinping has overseen a tightening of China’s cyberspace controls, including tough new data surveillance and censorship rules.
