China to tighten grip over country’s Internet users

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China has tightened its grip over the country’s 650 million Internet users by announcing moves to station police officers inside large Internet companies in an effort to heighten censorship and prevent subversion, according to a senior security official.

The move follows a spate of recent efforts to tighten the screws on social media users, as well as a draft cyber security law that will grant authorities broad new powers to control the Internet in the country and force web companies to share more data with the government. Chen Zhimin, the deputy minister of public security, revealed a plan to set up “network security offices” in major internet companies — such as Tencent and Alibaba — “in order to be able to find out about illegal internet activity more quickly”, although he did not specify how the initiative would work.


China to tighten grip over country’s Internet users