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China Moving to Real Name Registrations for Blogs
dptalia writes "China is moving to require people to use their real names when blogging. The proposed solution, arrived at by the Internet Society of China (affiliated with the ministry of information) would allow bloggers to use a pseudonym when blogging as long as they used their real name when registering."
Additionally, tactics like this in China, I can't help but wonder, will this in some way allow US Intelligence to decide exactly who is responsible for attacks against US Cyber Targets? If people are required to use their REAL names when registering (let's say on Yahoo just for an example), and there is a Yahoo group comprised of mostly Chinese users, which post all kinds of anti-American things, or organizing these attacks, what's to stop US Intelligence from forcing Yahoo to turn over the names of those registered?
Furthermore, what if the US decides to expand the "Patrio" Act, to include requirements like this (Hell they've already forced ISPs and phone companies into turning over ludicrous amounts of information).
Maybe I'm wearing a tin-foil hat and not realizing it, but is anyone else troubled by the recent trend in online privacy intrusions? That is one thing that is nice about the internet, it affords you a certain amount of anonymity. Could we be witnessing the end of that?
Also, just how much REAL difference is there in the US's privacy invasion crimes, and China's? Could it be that China is just more blatant about it?
This is a perfect example of why we need to preserve the possibility of anonymity on the net.
It's fine to authenticate financial transactions and what not, but there is no complete freedom of speech without the ability to be anonymous at times.
Actually, this sort of thing would be labeled "fighting terrorism" in the US.
Is it too much to ask for a little professionalism with an article's "from the ... dept"?
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I feel bad for the Chinese government. I mean with all the free trade and stuff they're barely even communist anymore. You may call stunts like this "repression". I call it China staying in touch with it's roots. Remember the chairman. (A single tear falls)
You can make a difference. Donate to The LEEBY (Larry Ellison's Even Bigger Yacht) Fund.
Names are by no means unique identifiers in China -- there are only a hundred or so family names in common use and the characters used in people's names are often recycled. With the population of China being as large as it is, even if you use your real name there could easily be 50 people in your area who have exactly the same name.
Now if they were requiring that a person register with their ID number -- everyone in China has one -- that would be something. It surprises me, actually, that they're not doing that. I wonder why?
Fascists who quote Marx tend to be called socialists or communists. The difference is really very superficial.
Where were you when the voynix came?
FUCK YOU CHINA!
And by China I mean "Chinese government". Seems appropriate as the rest of the world mistakes US for US government!
PS: I don't reply to ACs.
The same thing is in place for registering .us domain names, isn't it?
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http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/03/31/0
TFA doesn't give any details, but I'd be willing to bet that 'registering your real name' doesn't mean they just give you a box and you type in "Sandy O'Hoolahan". Considering China's record with internet regulation, there's probably going to be enough checks and controls so that once you register, if you blog something they don't like, they can find you.
exactly. let's not get up on our moral high horse here. We americans still live in a country where all our phone calls and internet traffic are monitored.
there is no need to sign your posts. this isn't usenet. your username is right there above your post. stop it.
"Different societies have different values"
Yeah, and any society that stifles free speech is a society that needs to change.
Let's not pretend that "to each his own" applies when we're talking about governments/religions/societies that restrict basica human freedoms. The reason that "Western culture" is taking over in most of the world is because it is a BETTER CULTURE in many, if not most, ways. Too many people mistakenly wax nostalgiac for the good old days of the Old World, and forget that the Old World was mostly a living hell for the vast majority of the non-ruling class.
Not mine. You must live in a different dimension where Democratic party talking points are reality.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
Prove that. Prove that although we can be monitored, we aren't. Because I can prove otherwise: I worked for a company called ClientLogic that does customer service and Tech Support for Earthlink in Albuquerque, NM. Every single message you send out through Webmail is kept on a server, whether or not you delete it at home. We even had the option of reading your mail and then checking a box to Mark them as "Unread". Because you are such a compliant citizen, it makes no difference to you, I'm sure, but all servers do that. If we didn't like what we read, we were trained to report it anonymously at work or simply to call DHS on our own.
And just like I'm sure in China they will be scanning large amounts of date for keywords, the same thing is done here. Noone is sitting there reading everything but certain sites and certain keywords or phrases activate surveillance on you. Google Total Information Awareness and Ecehelon...