Petrovic Posted July 20, 2016 Share Posted July 20, 2016 Sad news from China. A total control over Advertising which was announced to be introduced in September actually means total ban of ad blockers. It seems a rather sudden decision for us all. But apparently it has some serious background. Debates started after the death of college student Wei Zexi who had a cancer. This is where you amusingly ask “Poor boy, but what does it have to do with ad blockers?”. Well, Mr Wei had taken therapy found through an online ad on Baidu. Subsequently government started investigation into Baidu’s medical advertising practices and came to a radical decision. Mr Wei’s death had indeed started polemic about the online environment full of obscurities when it comes to finding health information. The situation is compounded by the fact that there is only one search company that dominates in China. This led to the status quo, when most of Chinese prefer to ask fellow patients for advice on online forums, which made Baidu the main destination for medical information. What happened next? It was decided to take advertising under control. And a draft of Internet Advertising Interim Rules was created. They were intended to pursue one higher goal to lay out guidelines to protect users against false or misleading ads. They will as well “prohibit online ads for prescription medication and tobacco, while requiring prior government approval for ads for medical supplies, pesticides, veterinary medicine and other health products”. Regulations also required that search engines limit ad results to 30% for each search-results page. BUT! Article 16 actually prohibits ad blockers. Here is a rough translation of the Regulation. Article XVI of Internet Advertising Interim Rules prohibits the following acts: (A) to provide or use applications, hardware, and other advertising methods that intercept, filter, cover, fast-forward data used for advertising by others; (B) the use of network access, network devices, applications, and the disruption of normal advertising data, tampering with or blocking data used for advertising by others; (C) the use of false statistics, dissemination of false results or values to seek illegitimate interests or harm the interests of others. How would we comment these news? Blocking ads is legal worldwide. This is not just our speculation – it was proved during several lawsuits in Germany. Today China citizens were robbed of an important right: a right to decide for themselves what ads to see and what personal data to share with ad networks and trackers. And, actually, there is some irony in this situation, though. Some of the largest companies actively pushing ad blocking (UC Browser, Opera), are originated from China. Article source Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
humble3d Posted July 20, 2016 Share Posted July 20, 2016 So, the powers that be fully support capitalist advertising now ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnakeMasteR Posted July 20, 2016 Share Posted July 20, 2016 Didn't know that german law applies worldwide, especially in China. What's legal in Germany can perfectly be illegal in all other countries and vice versa. Why would China care about german lawmaking? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
naughtyclaire Posted July 20, 2016 Share Posted July 20, 2016 China blocks everything, if you are chinese and try and look for Tiananman Square, good look finding anything. It is a totalitarian state. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pc71520 Posted July 21, 2016 Share Posted July 21, 2016 13 hours ago, naughtyclaire said: China blocks everything Almost everything... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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