Participants from different organizations across the world attended the 3rd World Internet Conference in Wuzhen last week. (Photo : Getty Images)
The proliferation of false news items and terrorism are among the top reasons to tighten up regulation of the Internet, Chinese officials and business leaders said at the third World Internet Conference in Wuzhen last week, Reuters reported.
Participants of the conference said that stricter governance of the Internet is needed as cyberspace has become dangerous and unmanageable, enabling militants to organize online or allowing fake news items to spread, such as in the recent U.S. elections.
According to Ren Xianling, the vice minister of Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), the process putting up regulations is simitar to "installing brakes on a car before driving on the road." He also urged the use of a system to identify netizens who post false news items and rumors and hold them accountable.
Ren's comments came as U.S. social networks Facebook Inc. and Twitter were criticized for the uncontrolled circulation of false and malicious information from users, which some believed influence the outcome of the U.S. elections.
Last year, China moved to implement some measures to manage the use of the Internet. Earlier this month, the government passed a controversial cybersecurity law, which foreign business group criticized.
Some people, however, were concerned that such controls would stunt the growth and development of China's influence in the global tech sector.
This year's Wuzhen conference also indicated China's tougher stance on Internet use where participants were no longer given access to websites blocked by the 'Great Firewal', unlike last year.
In a short video speech on Wednesday, Nov. 16, President Xi Jinping reiterated his call to respect "cyber sovereignty", referring to government's imposition of controls over cyberspace within the country's borders.
Foreign firms are concerned about the issues of surveillance and data storage requirements of China's cybersecurity law, which will take effect in June next year, despite assurance from the China's Internet regulator that it was not designed to target foreign firms but to protect "critical infrastructure" from cyber terrorism.
UN officials who attended the conference also considered the possibility of a multilateral cyber-terrorism treaty, but it was stalled over the definition of cyber-terrorism.
Representatives from several major foreign tech firms such as Facebook, International Business Machines Corp, Qualcomm Inc and Tesla Motors Inc also joined the conference.
China's top tech firms also expressed their support for the government's cybersecurity regulations, citing the role of social media in Trump's election as a glaring example of the fight against fake news.
Ma Huateng, the chairman and chief executive of Tencent Holdings Ltd, said Trump's win showed the global community about the dangers of fake news, a view shared by other executives at the event.
"(Trump's popularity) reinforces wariness about how much freedom should be allowed in the use of the Internet in China," Jingdong Yuan, an associate professor at Sydney University specializing in Asia-Pacific Security, said.
But Internet control has also its disadvantages. During the first public trial of Baidu's autonomous cars in Wuzhen, it encountered problems due to recent restrictions on autonomous vehicles.
"In China a few months back they just have a new regulation that banned the testing on highways, so we only do it in the streets now," Wang Jing, the vice president in charge of Baidu's autonomous driving unit, said. "I don't know why."
"If you (regulators) want to have this kind of driving in China early on then you've got to support us," Wang added.
