Netizens recently noticed a cryptic line of information appearing at the bottom of the official Web site of the London Summer Olympics (www.london2012.com), sparking speculation about possible complicity by the Games’ organizers in Chinese Internet censorship during the event.
At first glance, the last line of information on the site, which appeared in light gray characters, seemed mysterious enough: ICP filing number (京ICP備12028602號). The acronym stands for Internet content provider, a permit issued by the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) allowing China-based Web sites to operate in China.
Under regulations promulgated in September 2000, all Web sites with domain names operating inside China must obtain an ICP license. Foreign companies that, for whatever reason, are unable to acquire an ICP license often enter into agreements with Chinese Internet firms and use the license of the Chinese company.
China-based Internet service providers are required to block a site if it fails to acquire a license within a grace period.
The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) does not have a dedicated site in China.
The organizer told the Taipei Times yesterday that after observing a 30-second-plus load time with Chinese Internet users, it decided to serve the site on a China-based content delivery network (CDN).
To get access to such a network, LOCOG was obliged to apply for an ICP license, it said.
According to the Global Voices Advocacy group, the registered company is Quan Ya Intellectual Property Agency (Beijing) Ltd (權亞知識產權代理(北京)有限公司), a Beijing-based intellectual property rights agent. The individual in charge is Liu Juan (劉娟).
LOCOG maintains that the arrangement has nothing to do with censorship.
“It does not require us to make any commitments around the type or tone of content we offer to any end user nor have we made any such commitments,” a representative from the LOCOG news desk said.
Other international sites operating in China with an ICP license include the New York Times, Google and the National Basketball Association, she said.
However, this also means that the content provided by the official Web site could be manipulated once it is fed in to the local CDN, and live feeds could be delayed.
Under MIIT regulations, all licensed Web sites are forbidden from broadcasting information that is judged to be damaging to the national and public interest; misleading the public; harmful to the morality of socialism; contains names or nouns that have special meanings; and is against laws and regulations.
The Chinese authorities often rely upon delays during live coverage to censor any content it deems inappropriate for a Chinese audience. In the past, delays were used to edit out “damaging scenes” such as anti-China protests or references to democracy, Tibet, Taiwan and other challenges to the authority of the Chinese Communist Party. During the 2008 Beijing Olympics, all broadcasts of sporting events were subjected to a 10-second delay in case Tibetans or other political dissidents staged demonstrations.
Several observers are not convinced and speculate that Beijing set the arrangement as a precondition, threatening that the Web site would be blocked in China if LOCOG failed to comply.
To minimize confusion, the Olympic organizers said they had removed the number from the site.
GEARING UP: An invasion would be difficult and would strain China’s forces, but it has conducted large-scale training supporting an invasion scenario, the report said China increased its military pressure on Taiwan last year and took other steps in preparation for a potential invasion, an annual report published by the US Department of Defense on Wednesday showed. “Throughout 2023, Beijing continued to erode longstanding norms in and around Taiwan by employing a range of pressure tactics against Taiwan,” the report said, which is titled “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China (PRC) 2024.” The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) “is preparing for a contingency to unify Taiwan with the PRC by force, if perceived as necessary by Beijing, while simultaneously deterring, delaying or denying
‘LAGGING BEHIND’: The NATO secretary-general called on democratic allies to be ‘clear-eyed’ about Beijing’s military buildup, urging them to boost military spending NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte mentioning China’s bullying of Taiwan and its ambition to reshape the global order has significance during a time when authoritarian states are continuously increasing their aggression, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. In a speech at the Carnegie Europe think tank in Brussels on Thursday, Rutte said Beijing is bullying Taiwan and would start to “nibble” at Taiwan if Russia benefits from a post-invasion peace deal with Ukraine. He called on democratic allies to boost defense investments and also urged NATO members to increase defense spending in the face of growing military threats from Russia
PEACEFUL RESOLUTION: A statement issued following a meeting between Australia and Britain reiterated support for Taiwan and opposition to change in the Taiwan Strait Canada should support the peaceful resolution of Taiwan’s destiny according to the will of Taiwanese, Canadian lawmakers said in a resolution marking the second anniversary of that nation’s Indo-Pacific strategy on Monday. The Canadian House of Commons committee on Canada-Chinese relations made the comment as part of 34 recommendations for the new edition of the strategy, adding that Ottawa should back Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, first published in October 2022, emphasized that the region’s security, trade, human rights, democracy and environmental protection would play a crucial role in shaping Canada’s future. The strategy called for Canada to deepen
TECH CONFERENCE: Input from industry and academic experts can contribute to future policymaking across government agencies, President William Lai said Multifunctional service robots could be the next new area in which Taiwan could play a significant role, given its strengths in chip manufacturing and software design, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman and chief executive C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said yesterday. “In the past two months, our customers shared a lot of their future plans with me. Artificial intelligence [AI] and AI applications were the most talked about subjects in our conversation,” Wei said in a speech at the National Science and Technology Conference in Taipei. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, counts Nvidia Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc, Apple Inc and
RSS