-15,000 Arrested for Online Crimes in China-

[Jaguar]

Police in the country revealed they have arrested about 15,000 people for cybercrimes – i.e. the ones that “jeopardized online security”. Of course, this is inspired by the government in a bid to tighten controls on the worldwide web. The statistics said that police have investigated 7,400 cases of cybercrime. The ministry of public security made the data transparent, but didn’t specify over what period the arrests were made. However, a case dating to December 2014 was referred to in the statement.

Back in July, China announced the start of a 6-month program dubbed “Cleaning the Internet”. The ministry of public security said that for the next step, the public security bodies would continue to develop their investigation and crackdown on online crimes. It is known that the program in question targeted websites that provided unlawful and harmful data, advertisements for porn, explosives, firearms and gambling. According to statistics, overall, police investigated as many as 66,000 websites.

The communist country runs one of the most sophisticated online censorship mechanisms in the world, which is widely known as the Great Firewall of China. In the meantime, the state-backed censors keep a tight grip on what information can be published online, especially content that could potentially undermine the ruling Communist party.

At the beginning of 2015, the local Internet watchdog announced that from 1 March it would ban Internet accounts deemed as impersonating people or organizations. The agency also promised to enforce a requirement for Internet users to use their real names when registering accounts in the web.