China Forms New Agency To Police Web Traffic

China has formed a new police agency, titled the Internet News Coordination Bureau, to monitor traffic in those hard to reach areas of the web-- social networking, microblogging and video-sharing and the like. Social networking websites such as Facebook have proven difficult for China's current monitoring capabilities. Over the past year, China has blocked service from sites they deemed subversive such as overseas video and networking giants like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. Yet, China has promoted local competitors such as Sina.com and QQ.com, while blocking foreign rivals.

The new agency, along with existing internet policing agencies, fall under the control of the State Council Information Office--including another bureau that is dedicated to regulating foreign news and information outlets that do business in China.