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London Olympic Official Website Files its ICP Record in China

Categories: China, United Kingdom, Regulation

A number of Chinese netizens noticed that the London 2012 Olympic Official Website: london 2012.com has filed its Internet Content Provider (ICP) record in China. At the bottom of the website, the filing number is written in light grey colour: ICP filing number(京ICP备12028602号)

A light grey notice of ICP filing number is placed at the bottom of the website.

Many are astonished by such act as the ICP filing policy only applies to Internet Content Provider (ICP) from within China.

According to “the regulation on the management of non-profitable internet information service” (《非经营性互联网信息服务备案管理办法》) implemented in March 2005, all websites, including business enterprise and individual websites, has to file their company and personal information online to the China Ministry of Industry and Information (MIIT) and all registered websites are forbidden to post any content that are:

1. damaging to the nation and public interest;
2. misleading the public
3. harmful to the morality of socialism
4. names or nouns that have special meanings
5. against existing laws and regulation.

The public record [zh] on the ICP filing indicates that the registered company is a Beijing based intellectual property rights agent: Quan Ya Intellectual Property Agent (Beijing) Limited (权亚知识产权代理(北京)有限公司) and the individual in charge is Liu Juan.

As most of the Chinese netizens pointed out, there is no need for the London 2012 Olympic organizing committee to file the website record at MIIT. Netizen Lilujun believes [zh] that the filing is to prevent the website from being blocked in China and secure more Advertisements from Chinese companies. However, he also points out that such move is a bowing gesture to the unreasonable China censorship policy, in particular the fact that the Olympic website is not a Chinese based business website and that the filing regulation only applies to domestic websites.