Rights group criticizes new China cybercrime bill as threat to free expression and information access News
U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Jared Lovett, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Rights group criticizes new China cybercrime bill as threat to free expression and information access

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Tuesday reported on the threats to rights created by China’s new cybercrime bill and urged the concerned governments to press China to scrap the draft law.

China’s Ministry of Public Security published the proposed Draft Law on Cybercrime Prevention and Control in January, and while it addresses legitimate concerns–criminal online activities, fraud, child pornography, and illicit financial transactions–it also reportedly threatens “internationally protected rights to privacy, freedom of expression, and access to information.”

China researcher at HRW Yalkun Uluyol noted that the bill would provide China with authority to expand and tighten social controls within its borders and beyond. Uluyol emphasized how the proposed legislation threatens online anonymity, free speech, and access to information. The researcher said many offenses in the bill are vaguely phrased, including phrases like “disrupting the real-name management system,” “harming national security,” and “disrupting online order.” HRW argued that lack of specificity creates a possibility of punishing legitimate online speech and activities. 

The bill would also consolidate and reinforce China’s real-name registration requirement across telecommunication, internet, and banking systems services, limiting anonymous expression. Provisions threaten to criminalize legitimate activities of journalists, human rights defenders, and security researchers by prohibiting publication of “information that goes against social order.”

The new “abusive cybercrime regime” would also extend to citizens abroad as well as foreign individuals and organizations that provide internet service to users in China. The draft law would allow authorities to freeze funding and investments of foreign entities that produce or disseminate information that harms state interests or bar them from entering the nation.

Earlier this month, China adopted a Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress that requires “people of all ethnicities, all state organs and armed forces, all political parties and social groups, enterprises, institutions, and organizations [to prioritize] a strong sense of the community of the Chinese people.” HRW spoke out against the new legislation, criticizing the forced assimilation of the 55 recognized minority groups in China. 

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