Is Skype Illegal in China?
Skype is a popular technology that allows people to make and receive phone calls over the internet. There’s no charge whatsoever to use the service, and all you need is a webcam, microphone, set of speakers, and the software application downloaded onto your computer.
The phone provider has experienced significant legal difficulties in China, however. On December 30, 2010, China’s Ministry of Information and Industry Technology announced that it would be cracking down on the illegal use of VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) phone services throughout the country. As of the ruling, the only organizations that can offer VoIP in the country are the state-owned China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom.
Kan Kalli, a professor at the Beijing University of Post and Telecommunications, does not believe a full Skype shut down will occur. He stated, “The children of Chinese government officials, who are studying abroad, use these services to call home, so I do not think anyone is going to cut the lines. Even if they take a strict approach, such as getting local operators to block the broadband services of people who use Skype, people will still find a way around it.” He then cited Gmail Talk and MSN as alternate services that citizens could use to circumvent the ruling.
Skype and other foreign companies are not the only ones affected by the decision. There are approximately a hundred local providers in China that offer VoIP service to the public. Unless they obtain an official license from the government, they will be shut down. Some will be able to do so, but for the most part the decision protects the three state-owned phone providers from competition.
This is not the first time that China’s Ministry of Information and Industry Technology has responded in an overzealous manner to a perceived threat. Back in 2009, the ministry demanded that all manufacturers install the Green Dam Youth Escort content-control software onto personal computers. This was supposed to curtail the spread of pornography, but the software was extremely faulty – it could not recognize people with dark skin, and considered cartoon characters like Garfield to be a lewd threat.
It’s not known whether the Chinese government will continue to react in a regressive manner towards new technology, but all indications seem to point that direction. The end result may be quite unfortunate – a virtual “wall” between the citizens of China and the rest of the world.
