The internet is leaving China one company at a time as government efforts to erect a Great Wall of Technology repel investors. First Google, now Danica Patrick:
In December, China began to enforce a new policy that required any registrant of a new .cn domain name to provide a color head shot and other business identification, including a Chinese business registration number and physical signed registration forms. That data was to be forwarded to the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), a quasi-governmental agency. Most domain name registries require only name, address, telephone number and e-mail address.
“We were immediately concerned about the motives behind the increased level of registrant verification being required,” Christine N. Jones, general counsel of the Go Daddy Group Inc., told the Congressional-Executive Commission on China on Wednesday. “The intent of the procedures appeared, to us, to be based on a desire by the Chinese authorities to exercise increased control over the subject matter of domain name registrations by Chinese nationals.”
Until recently, Chinese authoritarianism seemed to be finding its way into the information age. No longer — the trend is away from cooperation with obsessive security and towards the exit door. This doesn’t necessarily mean the party is going to implode, but it does point to a future in which China’s internet doesn’t resemble ours.
