China calls for ‘sovereignty on the internet’

China believes that it can decide for itself what information is and is not allowed on the internet. That writes the mouthpiece of the Communist Party, the newspaper People’s Daily. The newspaper argues for Chinese sovereignty on the internet.

According to the People’s Daily, “Internet sovereignty is in line with international law,” writes The Wall Street Journal. “From a practical point of view, each country should have the right to set its own internet policies and regulations,” the paper said. “Other countries have no right to interfere.” China itself intervenes considerably in its internet traffic: for example, the government hinders access to sites that the government sees as controversial or undesirable.

Experts interviewed in the article argue that the United States has too much control over the Internet. The country, which, among other things, has control over the DNS and the issuance policy of IP addresses, said earlier that it would hand over that power.

France also complains about the American power over the internet. The country is afraid that Icann, which manages TLDs, could compromise the protection of regional names thanks to new domain names .vin and .wine, because the governments and Icann have not agreed on the protection of regional products. For example, someone could register ‘champagne.wine’ and sell wine through that site that, according to France, should not be called champagne without the French government being able to do anything about it. France therefore wants to have a say, in the form of a meeting in which each country has a vote.