BBC Chinese recently reported on the First World Internet Conference, held in Wuzhen, Zhejiang Province. The conference covered global Internet governance, online business, network security, Internet anti-terrorism, and new media. China is currently the largest internet market; it has 630 million online users, who represent one-fifth of the entire Internet population. However, China is also considered one of the nations having the tightest governmental control of the Internet. Regular Chinese Internet users have no access to well-known sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram. Ironically, one of the primary sponsors of this conference is the State Council Informatization Office, which is in charge of China’s Internet censorship. At the conference, the Chinese authorities also announced the expansion of censorship to smartphone apps. For three days, the conference area was the only public place in Mainland China where people had full access to the Internet. At the same time, the government denied the applications of many international media reporters who applied to report on the conference.
Source: BBC Chinese, November 19, 2014
http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/simp/china/2014/11/141118_internetconference