Employees at two other portals, however, said the latest tweaking was in response to direct pressure from Chinese Internet authorities to bolster their systems for monitoring content.
As the recently-established Central Network Information Office becomes the new (centralized) Internet authority of China that is speculated to be independent from the Central Propaganda Department, we may begin to witness the beginning of trust-building mechanism through more information monitoring and guiding online in China.
Despite promises by the Chinese that foreign journalists would have unfettered access to the Internet, authorities initially blocked access to several Web sites at the main press center.
The data collected for each website included ten generally agreed key characteristics to help assess quality and relevance of health information on the internet: Authority of source; Purpose of website; Date of last update; Country of origin; Intended audience; Provision of disclaimer; Funding source; Contact details; References; Links [ 13, 14, 16, 17].
"There's nothing on the ID card itself, because that could be dangerous if you lost it," says Katrin Pärgmäe, who is in charge of public awareness at RIA, the country's internet authority.
China's Information Industry Ministry posted a notice on its Web site on Friday that said only the semiofficial China Internet Network Information Center had the authority to register Chinese-character Web addresses, or domain names.
There are few sites left to be blocked — as Chinese internet authorities step up their plan to raise the Great Firewall yet further, most of the large western websites are already stuck behind it.
The commission has already recommended that Congress give it considerable new authority to regulate Internet privacy.
William J. Briggs II, a lawyer representing the bank, said the decision "abdicated federal judicial authority to the Internet".
At the time, he was a commissioner of the Korea Communications Standards Commission, a government agency with an authority to delete Internet content it considered harmful.
