Human rights and gay communities oppose China’s plan to ban websites

As Chinese government announced its request to preinstall special software that bans certain websites on the internet the community in the Celestial Empire started expressing its disagreement with the rule. Li Fangping, a Beijing human rights advocate who often embraces controversial causes, has asked the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to allow hearings on the "lawfulness and reasonableness" of the demand, which takes effect from July 1.

"This administrative action lacks a legal basis," Li wrote in a submission to the ministry. "Designating that the same software must be installed in all computers affects citizens' rights to choose."

The public battle involved not only Li’s demand but also objections on the part of various groups. Li said that many people think the software is being promoted by authorities as a measure to prevent discussion of sensitive political topics, especially in this year of controversial anniversaries.

"Above all, we're concerned about freedom of speech and the right to know," he said. "We know that citizens have been prosecuted because of their private emails, and we're worried about more such cases."

Apart from this human rights and gay advocating groups also demanded that this software plan to be declined. According to the statement of the five separate groups such a rule threatened to hinder access to a great number of gay community websites.

Wan Yanhai, a leader of the Beijing-based Aizhixing organization, which works on AIDS and gay rights, said he was preparing a mass petition to mobilize opposition to the software.

"We need to demand not just the lifting of this software decree, but also an end to restrictions on gay publications," Wan told Reuters. "This is about opposing censorship."