China

There is a lot of tough love during the time of COVID, and the laws and regulations policing online speech are more stringent than before.

A few weeks ago, several Weibo (the Chinese Twitter) users, including one V-level influencer with more than 2 million followers, were detained for questioning...

Users of major mobile carriers can no longer access a service that detailed the personal information of police officers, a possible sign that the city is turning to tactics used in mainland China. Read more at The New York Times.

Three prominent human rights activists have accused Zoom of disrupting or shutting down their accounts because they were linked to events to mark the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen massacre or were to discuss China’s measures to exert control over Hong Kong. From The Guardian. 

For we, which now behold these present days,

Have eyes to wonder, but lack tongues to praise.

----William Shakespeare 

When in the Chronicle of Wasted Time

On May 4th, when many of us were celebrating the Star Wars day, either virtually or geared up with COVID-proof stormtrooper...

Three years after rights owner Sohu sued Baidu for both direct and indirect copyright infringement of Sohu's hit web series 匆匆那年 (namely, the fleet of time, 2014), Baidu won on appeal at Jiangsu High People’s Court after the 2018 defeat at a lower court. 

The Court held that users’ uploading...

Following years of hot debates on whether to accentuate Personality Right as an independent provision in the Civil Code, China’s legislative body is now giving the draft a second reading in light of the controversies around human genome research, artificial intelligence technology, and exploitation...

China’s Sina Weibo will remove gay and violent content, including pictures, cartoons and text posts, during a three-month clean-up campaign, the microblogging platform said.

Read more at Reuters. 

On March 31, 2018, a ban on non-state sanctioned virtual private networks (VPNs) entered into force in China.

Read more at I&J Retrospect. 

Recently, Guangzhou IP Court” ruled that online streaming platform  YY.com (similar to Twitch.tv) has infringed upon the copyrighted works in Fantasy Westward Journey II (hereafter "Westward Journey") that are owned by NetEase, a major video game developer and publisher in China.

During the...

On February 7, 2018, it was reported that the Chinese regulator combating the spread of vulgar and obscene content online criticized major Chinese internet companies Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu for failing to adequately moderate "harmful" information.

Read more at the I&J Retrospect.