(CNN) -- Whether you're a domestic company or an international business, failure to comply with China's strict Internet regulations risks having your online presence curtailed or shut down completely. This means being subjected to the so-called "Great Firewall of China," where websites, from newspaper portals to micro-blogging services, come under intense scrutiny from government censors who prohibit topics deemed unsuitable. "Bottom line is that there's a list of topics that domestic and international media based in China doesn't allow discussions on," said Doug Young, journalism professor at Fudan University in Shanghai and author of "The Party Line: How The Media Dictates Public Opinion in Modern China."
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Companies based in China must comply with strict internet regulations, or be blocked online
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Many international social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube are blocked in China
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Google moved its Chinese search engine to Hong Kong in 2010, to avoid censorship
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Google recently removed a censorship-warning feature from its Chinese search engine
Initially, the company agreed to censor the content in accordance with @placeholder Internet regulations.
"They [the government] don't want to block @placeholder entirely, but they still do what they can to make the user experience as horrible as possible," Young said.