INTERNET SOVEREIGNTY WITH CHINESE CHARACTERISTICS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18485/Keywords:
Internet sovereignty, Internet governance, China, control, surveillanceAbstract
The development of the modern information and communication technologies, as well as the increase of the number of Internet users, has helped to intensify the debate on Internet governance at international forums. On the one hand, the United States insists on the Multi-stakeholder Internet Governance model, while on the other hand, China is more loudly advocating the ”Internet sovereignty” model – a multilateral approach in which all countries of the world freely choose their own cyber-development way, with no state having a position to apply cyber hegemony. This model certainly came under criticism in the West, because it was designated as a platform for empowering control and violating civil liberties. But, on the other hand, we are witnessing that certain Western states are also working to establish greater control in their own cyber space, and therefor their critique of the Chinese model is less convincing. Finaly, China, as the first ”Internet sovereign” state, has reach so far in the domain of technical and legislative improvement of its own cyber space, that it is difficult to imagine that the current situation will return to its initial position, especially if we consider the growth of political and economic power of this state. We have come to the conclusion that in the future global debate on Internet governance, the arguments will be increasingly on the Chinese side, and that a new era of cyber sovereign states is ahead of us.
References
[1] Bundestag zabranjuje govor mržnje i izmišljene vesti, Politika, 2017. Dostupno preko: http://www.politika.rs/sr/clanak/377889/Bundestag-zabranjuje-govor-mrznjei-izmisljene-vesti (Pristupljeno 10. decembra 2017).
[2] Chen, Wenhong, “Taking stock, moving forward: the Internet, social networks and civic engagement in Chinese societies”, Information, Communication & Society, 17:1. 1–6, Routledge, London, 2014, p. 1.
[3] China Internet Users, Internet Live Stats, 2016. Available from: http://www.internetlivestats.com/internet-users/china/ (Accessed 10 December 2017).
[4] China’s internet – A giant cage, The Economist, 2013. Available from: http://www.economist.com/news/special-report/21574628-internet-was-expected-help-democratise-china-instead-it-has-enabled (Accessed 10 December 2017).
[5] Dangerously disproportionate – The ever-expanding National Security State in Europe, Amnesty International, 2017. Available from: https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/EUR0153422017ENGLISH.PDF (Accessed 8 December 2017).
[6] Fu, King-wa and Chau, Michael, Reality check for the Chinese microblog space: A random sampling approach, PloS One, Vol.8(3), 2013. Available from: http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0058356, (Accessed 10 December 2017).
[7] Gurstein, Mike, Multistakeholderism vs. Democracy: My Adventures in ”Stakeholderland”, Web blog post, 2013. Available from: https://gurstein.wordpress.com/2013/03/20/multistakeholderism-vs-democracy-my-adventures-instakeholderland (Accessed 8 December 2017).
[8] Herold, David Kurt, “Noise, spectacle, politics: carnival in Chinese cyberspace” in: David Kurt Herold, Peter Marolt (ed.), Online Society in China – Creating, celebrating, and instrumentalising the online carnival, Routledge, London, 2011, p. 1.
[9] Hope, Christopher, Exclusive Spies and civil servants who leak secrets face 14 years in jail in first overhaul of the Official Secrets Act for 100 years, The Telegraph, 2017. Available from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/02/02/exclusive-spiescivil-servants-leak-secrets-face-14-years-jail/ (Accessed 10 December 2017).
[10] International Telecommunication Union, Collection of the basic texts adopted by the Plenipotentiary Conference, 2015. Available from: http://search.itu.int/history/Histor yDigitalCollectionDocLibrary/5.21.61.en.100.pdf (Accessed 8 December 2017).
[11] Investigatory Powers Act 2016, Parliament UK, 2016. Available from: http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2015-16/investigatorypowers.html (Accessed 7 December 2017).
[12] Kelly, Sanja, Truong, Mai, Shahbaz, Adrian and Earp, Madeline, Silencing the Messenger: Communication Apps under Pressure – Freedom on the Net 2016 – Annual report, Freedomhouse, 2016. Available from: https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-net/freedom-net-2016 (Accessed 10 December 2017).
[13] Larson, Christina, Zhai, Keith, Ramli, David and Yuan, Gao, China Adopts Cybersecurity Law Despite Foreign Opposition, Bloomberg Technology, 2016. Available from: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-11-07/chinapasses-cybersecurity-law-despite-strong-foreign-opposition (Accessed 10 December 2017).
[14] Limbago, Andrea, The global push for cyber sovereignty Is the beginning of cyber fascism, The Hill, 2016. Available from: http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/technology/310382-the-global-push-for-cyber-sovereignty-is-the-beginning-of (Accessed 8 December 2017).
[15] Liu, Fengshu, Urban Youth in China: Modernity, the Internet and the Self, Routledge, London, 2010, p. 35.
[16] Lu, Wei, Cyber Sovereignty Must Rule Global Internet, Huffington Post, 2014. Available from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lu-wei/china-cyber-sovereignty_b_6324060.html (Accessed 8 December 2017).
[17] Lum, Thomas, “Internet development and information control in the People’s Republic of China”, CRS report for Congress, Library of Congress, Washington, 2006.
[18] Malcomson, Scott, How Russia and China Are Cooperating to Dismantle America’s Dominance of the Internet, Huffington Post, 2016. Available from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-malcomson/russia-china-internet_b_9841670.html (Accessed 7 December 2017).
[19] Marinković, Ankica, Rusija blokirala društvenu mrežu ’Linktin’, Politika, 2016. Dostupno preko: http://www.politika.rs/sr/clanak/368039/Spektar/Digitalni-svet/Rusija-blokirala-drustvenu-mrezu-Linktin (Pristupljeno 10. decembra 2017).
[20] Moody, Glyn, Why the Investigatory Powers Act is a privacy disaster waiting to happen, Ars Technica UK, 2016. Available from: https://arstechnica.co.uk/tech-policy/2016/11/investigatory-powers-act-privacy-disaster-waiting-to-happen (Accessed 8 December 2017).
[21] Most famous social network sites worldwide as of September 2017, ranked by number of active users (in millions), Statista, 2017. Available from: https://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/ (Accessed 10 December 2017).
[22] Mozur, Paul and Jie, Yang, China Argues for ’Internet Sovereignty’ Is It a Good Idea? Web blog post, 2014. Available from: https://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2014/06/23/chinas-lays-out-argument-for-internet-sovereignty-convinced/ (Accessed 10 December 2017).
[23] Radojković, Miroljub, Stojković, Branimir i Vranješ, Aleksandar, Međunarodno komuniciranje u informacionom društvu, Clio, Beograd, 2015, str. 141.
[24] Polatin-Reuben, Dana and Wright, Joss, An Internet with BRICS Characteristics: Data Sovereignty and the Balkanisation of the Internet, 4th USENIX Workshop on Free and Open Communications on the Internet, 2014. Available from: https://www.usenix.org/system/files/conference/foci14/foci14-polatin-reuben.pdf (Accessed 10 December 2017), p. 3.
[25] Steele, Cherie and Stein, Arthur A. “Communications Revolutions and International Relations” in: Juliann Emmons Allison (ed.), Technology, Development and Democracy – International Conflict and Cooperation in the Information Age, State University of New York Press, Albany, 2002, p. 35.
[26] The Internet in China, People’s Daily Online, 2010. Available from: http://en.people.cn/90001/90776/90785/7017177.html (Accessed 10 December 2017).
[27] Travis, Alan, ’Snooper’s charter’ bill becomes law, extending UK state surveillance, The Guardian, 2016. Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/29/snoopers-charter-bill-becomes-law-extending-uk-state-surveillance (Accessed 8 December 2017).
[28] Vujić, Ljiljana, Udar Londona na novinare i uzbunjivače, Politika, Beograd, 2017. Dostupno preko: http://www.politika.rs/sr/clanak/374220/Udar-Londona-nanovinare-i-uzbunjivace (Pristupljeno 09. decembra 2017).
[29] Xi, Jinping, Remarks by H.E. Xi Jinping President of the People’s Republic of China At the Opening Ceremony of the Second World Internet Conference, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China, 2015. Available from: http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/wjdt_665385/zyjh_665391/t1327570.shtml (Accessed 10 December 2017).
[30] Zetter, Kim, California Now Has the Nation’s Best Digital Privacy Law, The Wired, 2015. Available from: https://www.wired.com/2015/10/california-now-nationsbest-digital-privacy-law (Accessed 10 December 2017).
[31] Zhou, Yongming, Historicizing online politics: Telegraphy, the Internet, and political participation in China, Stanford University Press, Palo Alto, 2006, p. 142.
[32] 2016 Cybersecurity Law, 2016. Available from: http://www.chinalawtranslate.com/cybersecuritylaw/?lang=en (Accessed 10 December 2017).
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
