China released an online drug control protocol on Monday for the first time, calling on Internet service providers and Net users to be self-policing, in an effort to crack down on an increasingly serious online drug trade.
The protocol aims to increase the influence of Net users, especially teenagers, to report online drug-related violations, and it is also a move to clean up the Internet environment, according to a press release sent to the Global Times by the Internet Society of China (ISC).
The protocol was jointly released by ISC and nine governmental departments, including the China National Narcotics Control Commission and the Cyberspace Administration.
China's three major telecom operators, China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom, more than 50 major Chinese Internet enterprises and five courier services signed a letter of commitment at a release ceremony for the protocol, vowing "zero tolerance" for drug-related violations.
"We call on all users of the Internet to abide by the protocol and to assume their social responsibility by supervising drug-related violations and stopping the spread of drug-related information," an anonymous official with the ISC told the Global Times.
Police launched a campaign starting in April to crack down on online drug crimes, and have solved 14,878 online drug-related violations and captured 32,871 suspects, said the report, citing statistics offered by Hu Minglang, head of the anti-drug bureau of the Ministry of the Public Security.
