A Group Called Opennet Initiative (ONI)

A group called Opennet Initiative (ONI), located at www.opennetinitiative.net, has been created by “a partnership between three leading academic institutions: the Citizen Lab at the Munk Centre for International Studies, University of Toronto, Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School, and the Advanced Network Research Group at the Cambridge Security Programme, University of Cambridge.” Their main goal is to “excavate, expose and analyze filtering and surveillance practices in a credible and non-partisan fashion.” ONI wants to learn more about the drawbacks and unintentional consequences of filtering and surveillance programs. ONI hopes that this information will help better the public policy and advocacy work.

Through their research, ONI has found many ways in which China regulates internet access for its citizens. Some of the ways China regulates the internet include, General media regulation, Internet access regulation, and Internet content regulation. “China’s Internet regulatory policy authorizes four state organizations — now subsumed into the Ministry of Information Industry (MII) — to operate networks connected to the global Internet.”

General media regulation occurs through a number or regulatory agencies. One such agency is The General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP). GAPP licenses and monitors media publications. Such publications include newspapers, periodicals, books and websites. GAPP gets help from the General Administration for Customs, “which confiscates publications deemed harmful to the government.”