China declares Skype illegal

PC Mag | Sara Yin | December 30, 2010

Skype may soon join Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube on China’s Internet blacklist.
Today, The People’s Daily, a Communist Party-run newspaper, declared that all Internet phone services other than those provided by the two state-run telcos, China Telecom and China Unicom, were illegal.
According to the article, the decision from The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is expected to make Skype, China’s UUCall, “and other similar services” unavailable.
The ministry is even soliciting the public’s help, setting up a hotline to collect reports and distributing PSA circulars.
“Currently, our ministry is working with relevant departments to focus on the crackdown on illegal VoIP [voice over internet protocol calls] and we are now appealing to the public for clues for illegal VoIP cases,” it said in a circular.
While censorship undoubtedly played a role in the ministry’s decision- several dissidents have been known to use Skype to communicate to those outside China- experts say there is a clear protectionist motive as well. China one of the fastest-growing Internet user populations in the world.
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