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China has defended its growing attempts to control the Internet, after disrupting several services that allowed users to view the Web free of censorship.

As the Internet develops, and new circumstances arise, we will take new regulatory measures to keep up, said Wen Ku, a director with Chinas Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, at a news conference on Tuesday.

The statement doesnt bode well for providers of virtual private networks (VPNs). These services can allow users to circumvent Chinas censorship and access the Internet unfiltered.

Last week, VPN providers including Astrill, StrongVPN, and Golden Frog reported access problems with their services.

In the case of Astrill, China has been disrupting the VPN protocols it once used to provide unfiltered Internet access to iOS devices, the company said in a posting for customers. We know how access to unrestricted Internet is important for you, so our fight with Chinese censors is not over, the VPN provider added in a later posting.

In China, the Internets development must follow Chinas rules and regulations, Wen said, when reporters asked about the growing censorship and the logic behind the new measures. Certain harmful content will be regulated according to Chinese law.

But the ministry wasnt concerned that the censorship might disrupt the local Internet industry. Wen pointed to the success of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, and the companys massive initial public offering on the U.S. stock market, as an example.

Everyone can see that this is all because of the Chinese governments policy safeguarding the environment for the developing Internet industry, he said.

In recent months, Chinas Internet has become more censored than ever. The government has already blocked Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. Last year it began cutting access to all Google services, in addition to several foreign mobile apps.

VPN services are gaining popularity among some sections of the Chinese public, and have become a convenient way to access popular foreign sites not allowed in the country.

View post:
China signals censors will continue to crack down on VPN services

Arthit Suriyawongkul, a researcher at Thai Netizen Network - a civil society group, said the controversial bills appeared to focus more on national cyber security than economic policy.

Arthit pointed out that some key details inside the bills were linked to the National Council for Peace and Order's declarations related to media censorship. If the bills came into effect, the result would be another form of state censorship through cyber and broadcasting services.

He expressed and shared this opinion in an academic seminar called "The digital economy policy and media reform", organised yesterday by Chulalongkorn University's Communications Arts faculty.

Arthit offered the cyber-security bill as an example. Under this draft law, the authorities would be allowed to set up committees able to access and survey the personal data of people across all forms and formats - without court orders.

A similar point between the NCPO's announcement and the new bills was that the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology would be placed under state sovereignty for national security reasons.

Also, panellist Prasong Lertratanawisute, director of the Isra Institute, suggested that to get access and collect personal data, the state authority should be permitted only by the court to ensure and guarantee people's rights were protected, plus freedom of information.

"Any bills involved with this issue must place more concern on privacy and rights of the people," Prasong suggested.

Pirongrong Ramasoota, a lecturer at Chulalongkorn University, said such bills would send the media reform process back to the past. She said another problem was the potential for abuse of power. So, the new bills should be amended to protect people's rights. "Under the bills, it seems the government needs to address public notification if they want to access personal data. This is not enough," she stressed and added that many developed countries in Europe emphasised consent in data collection and fair information practices. This was the point on which the Thai government must be concerned.

Apart from the public surveillance issue, media experts and scholars also expressed anxiety over media development once the laws were in place.

The panellists pointed to the NBTC's fund which is reserved for public research and development, disabled and disadvantaged people, benefits for the elderly and media development for public and community service. It would soon be used to fund government interests once the bills received endorsement by the National Legislative Assembly, they said.

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