Internet police needed to protect virtual society

A man visits Sina's Weibo microblogging site using an iPhone in Shanghai in this May 29, 2012 file photo. [Photo/ Agencies]

Internet police in 50 Chinese localities, including Beijing and Shanghai, launched a campaign to clean up popular social networking platforms such as Sina Weibo and WeChat starting Monday, in a bid to further curb cyber crimes. Their job includes detecting and removing illegal and harmful contents on the Internet, especially those harmful to children and women. Comments:

The Internet police are neither obliged nor supposed to make moral and political judgments on law-abiding online posts. It is only the illegal comments that have to be regulated. In a modern society, virtual or real, the police are part of the rule of law. Such being the case, online opinion leaders should not be an exception.

Global Times, June 1

Making public their investigation and enforcement of the Internet regulations, China's cyber police are hoping to inject a stronger sense of responsibility into more netizens who are encouraged to report online misdeeds. Such a mode of police supervision is conducive to the benign interactions between the police and public in cyberspace, where all should resort to self-discipline and abide by the law.

Liu Xinyun, an official with the Cyber Security and Protection Bureau, Ministry of Public Security, May 31

Being a central part of modern society, cyberspace must not be allowed to descend into a lawless realm. The Internet police are real police officers fighting against crimes on a virtual battlefield. Thus they have to have the full support of netizens to fulfill their responsibilities and let the online public have a bigger say in their job.

Legal Daily, June 1