China Shuts Down the Web: Domain Registration at the Ministry

China continues to tighten its rules for registering domain names. We recently wrote about the countryrestrictions are being introducedFor private domain name registrations. Today, China's internet regulator published new rules for domain name registration. These rules have already been officially approved. They affect not only new domains but also those that have already been registered.

The main change awaiting website owners in the .cn domain zone is that websites must be registered not only with a domain registrar but also with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Simultaneously with the publication of the new rules, the country's authorities created a blacklist of domain owners previously found guilty of distributing illegal material.

However, the question of how website owners who are not based in China will register their domains remains open. It's also unclear how this new rule will affect international internet resources with a Chinese presence, such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.

The main reason for tightening registration rules is to combat the spread of pornography and other illegal content, as well as opposition web resources.