China's film watchdog has been called on to clarify its basis for censorships. (Photo : SCMP)
The recent shutdowns of iTunes, iBooks and DisneyLife are keeping foreign companies on the edge of their seats.
The censorship ruckus had CNN asking: After heavyweight firms Apple and Disney felt the wrath of China's online media crackdown, who's next?
Recently, Apple was forced to shut down iTunes and iBooks in China "as it seeks a way to comply with the country's stringent new content regulations," said The Wall Street Journal.
DisneyLife, meanwhile, was ordered by Chinese regulators to pull down its services in the country, The WSJ said in a separate report.
The clampdown on Western websites is not new. Online platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Google have been banned in China for years.
"What is clear is that China is still extremely sensitive about content that's delivered to its huge population over the Internet," said CNN.
Late in April, China has taken a major step in imposing control over Western content by "restricting the work of foreign organizations and their local partners," wrote the New York Times.
More than 7,000 foreign nongovernment groups are said to be affected by the new law.
"Foreign groups working across Chinese civil society--on issues including the environment, philanthropy and cultural exchanges, and possibly even in education and business--will now have to find an official Chinese sponsor and must register with the police," said the Times.
The law also extends to NGOs in Macau, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Some of the foreign groups that will be affected by China's new law include The Ford Foundation, Save the Children, Greenpeace East Asia and Bethel Foundation.
China's "opaque use of ambiguous regulations" is a cause for confusion among Western media platforms, said CNN.
"There are rules but they're not being enforced consistently," stressed Peking University professor Paul Gillis in an interview with CNN.
"The arbitrary notion of deciding when to enforce them is not good for investors or good for China," added Gillis.
