Photo credit: Tim Yang via Flickr

The Chinese government recently announced new measures to impose stricter limits on creating and viewing personal websites. The regulations are being regarded as the country’s toughest internet censorship push yet, as well as an effort to increase the government’s control on potential political opposition, reported The New York Times.

Security officials have said these tighter measures are meant to protect children from pornography and internet scams, and to limit the piracy of music, films and television shows. Public Security Minister Meng Jianzhu called it a matter of national security and social stability. But in the 1 December issue of Qiushi, a magazine by the Communist Party’s Central Committee, he alluded to other reasons saying, “The Internet has become an important avenue through which anti-China forces infiltrate, sabotage and magnify their capabilities for destruction,” reported The New York Times.

The new effort has prevented any individuals from registering domain names under “.cn”, China’s country code domain. The China Internet Network Information Centre stated that as of 21 December, any person registering under “.cn” will need to present a company business license, reported CNN.  Individuals may apply for domains such as “.com” or “.net”. Over 700 entertainment media websites have been shutdown, including BT China, which offers free movies, TV and music downloads and sees at least 250,000 visits a day. Very CD will be China’s largest file-sharing website to be shut down if a new license is not obtained, reported The New York Times.

This restraint follows a string of other crackdowns on the internet, such as China’s recent ban on the usage of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Last week, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television closed down some video sharing websites on the basis of copyright violations and lewd content. More than 3,000 people were arrested that same week for posting pornographic content on the internet, reported CNN.

The internet has been a powerful antidote to government propaganda and state-controlled media in China. This latest censorship ruling fuels China’s growing political climate of unrest, since the riots in Xinjiang that killed almost 200 people this July. These riots were believed to be propagated through the internet, reported CNN. Founder of BT China Huang Xiwei tells Sina.com, a popular English-language news website on China, “All paths to a future have been blocked.”