The British Government is to host a debate in which China and the rest of Asia will be urged to toughen up on spam. The event, organised by the Department for Trade and Industry (DTI), will take place on Tuesday as part of a wider ecommerce forum.
Representatives from China, Indonesia, Japan and the EU member states will hear from industry experts about the threat of spam.
"I've talked to the Chinese before, they are very attentive and take everything in but they don't do anything about it," said Steve Linford, director of anti-spam organisation Spamhaus, who will be speaking at the event. "China is the second-worst spam country, behind the US. And yet it isn't working to combat the problem."
Linford lamented the absence of any representatives from Russia, the country fourth on Spamhaus' worst offenders list. An ASEM spokesperson said that Russia were keen to attend, but the conference was already fully booked. Currently Russia is not a member of the ASEM group.
The UK Government appears to be making increasing efforts on the non-legislative front to combat spam. Last month SC reported a delegation of UK MPs would be travelling to the US to discuss anti-spam legislation.
