SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
China's control over the Internet is set to expand. In a bid to better police local websites, the country's security forces are establishing offices at the biggest online companies in the country.
The country's Ministry of Public Security announced the new measures on Tuesday, at a time when authorities have been increasingly concerned about cyberthreats.
Websites based in China already have to abide by strict provisions for online censorship and will often delete any content deemed offensive by government censors.
The ministry's plan, however, will place China's security forces at the offices of the country's major websites, so that they can quickly respond to suspected online crimes, it said in a statement.
"Cyber attacks, the online spread of terrorist information, Internet fraud, and the stealing of personal information," were among the biggest threats the ministry named. In addition, authorities want to crack down on online rumor mongering, pornography, gambling and drug-related Internet activities.
No specific companies were mentioned, but the country's biggest Internet firms include Alibaba Group, Baidu and Tencent.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday August 07 2015, @12:23PM
They do that. What I gathered from going through the process with the CIA is that it's very difficult to arrange, because the companies they want to embed spies with nearly always have significant business interests in the countries where the US govt. wants to spy, and if the spy gets caught the company stands to lose millions or hundreds of millions of dollars when they get kicked out of the country. It would have to be a special situation where the intel the govt wants to get is important enough, and the US can apply more pressure on the company than the foreign govt can. But the US is a corporatocracy, so you can imagine how rare it is for the companies to not be calling the shots and saying, "Fuck no" (although they'd use prettier words).
As evidence, consider the enormous, costly backlash Google, Intel, and all the other US tech firms are experiencing now for having played along with the NSA. They're losing billions.
That's why the CIA itself relies on "consular officers" for much of its humint.
Washington DC delenda est.