The Chinese government stated it will place cybersecurity police units at the country’s major Internet companies and websites, to prevent fraud, other illegal activities and the amorphously phrased “spreading of rumors,” reports the state-owned Xinhua News Agency. The Internet in China is monopolized by three major companies: e-commerce site Alibaba, Tencent for gaming and messaging, and search engine Baidu. Neither Facebook nor Google operate in China; LinkedIn, which has agreed to China’s cybersecurity measures, does.

The country has always required Internet companies operating within China to eliminate accounts that are “spreading rumors, criticizing the Chinese Communist Party or disseminating pornography or other illegal content,” says The Wall Street Journal. But China has upped its cybersecurity activities since Edward Snowden reported that tech companies are used by U.S. intelligence agencies to spy on foreign countries.

According to WSJ, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation president Robert Atkinson enumerated two motivations behind the tightening security measures. “The first is to limit free speech and exert more state control on information flows,” he said. “But the second is to push the Internet industry in China even more firmly into being fully indigenous.”

China’s announcement punctuates increasing stress between that country and the United States over cybersecurity issues. China has also fast-tracked passage of a new “broad-sweeping draft cybersecurity law” that will increase government’s reach.

A spokesperson for the White House National Security Council was quoted by WSJ as being “concerned by these reports.” “The United States’ commitment to Internet freedom reflects our deep-seated belief that individuals have the same universal human rights online and offline.”

China has not revealed which Internet companies would receive cybersecurity police units or whether the units would be deployed to international and domestic tech companies operating in China. Apple, for whom China is the second largest market, had no comment.