The Ministry of Industry and Information Techonology ordered domain management institutions and Internet service providers to tighten control over domain name registration, in a three-phase plan laid out on its website (www.miit.gov) late on Sunday.
"Domain names that have not registered will not be resolved or transferred," it said, in the action plan to "further deepen" an anti-pornography campaign that has significantly tightened Internet controls.
The rules did not specify whether the new measure applies to overseas websites, but local media reported the risk that overseas sites that have not registered could also be blocked.
"If some legal foreign websites could not be logged onto because they haven't contracted the registrar with MIIT, it would be a pity for the Internet, which is meant to connect the whole world," the US News & World Report said on Tuesday.
The anti-pornography drive since the summer has also netted sites with politically sensitive or simply user-generated content, in what many see as an effort by the government to reassert control over new media and its potential for citizens sharing information and organizing.
