New Chinese Rule Requires Real Names Online

crimeandpunishment writes "According to a human rights group, a leading Chinese Internet regulator is calling for new rules requiring people to use their real names online and when buying mobile phones. New York-based 'Human Rights in China' says it has obtained the complete text of a speech Wang Chen, director of the State Council Information Office, made in April, and they quote him as saying 'We will make the Internet real name system a reality as soon as possible.'"

Comments

It's being done in the US too

[SquarePixel]

new rules requiring people to use their real names -- when buying mobile phones

Just like Chinese, this is required by Apple too. They say it's so that you cannot buy multiple phones, but you still are required to give them your real name when you want to buy a phone. You are only allowed to buy a device with a credit card and they will record your name and phone IMEI.

The trend in the US seems to be going strongly towards using real names too. Theres Facebook and there just was that Blizzard Forum incident. So it's not really nothing new, but it is just an another "china and communism is bad"-story when pretty much the same is done in the US.

Re:It's being done in the US too

[ScrewMaster]

but it is just an another "china and communism is bad"-story when pretty much the same is done in the US.

Regardless, two wrongs still don't make a right.

Re:Does this really do a lot of good?

[_Sprocket_]

Any guess on how many people share the name "Wang Chen" in all of China? Chances are most people could use their real name and still remain relatively anonymous.

Certain pieces of information are key nodes that link other clusters of information. You're right in so far as a name itself may not be unique and if given nothing but that piece of information, it'd be hard to single out and individual. But real names are very rarely isolated like that. There is usually a entire clusters of information around a name. And this rule would simply ensure that those clusters stay attached to any given individual (or at least - harder to isolate).

Re:Why do you need to be anonymous at all?

[inviolet]

Although I never agreed with totality control, from sometime ago to this date, I started to change my mind about anonymous everything. I really started to suspect that the most interested parties are criminals. Well, as Google said, if you don't have anything to hide, why are you so afraid of not being anonymous at all? I can't see the point.

Because sometimes, society is mistaken about what it considers to be wrong. In that situation, which in my opinion is very very common, privacy allows you to act morally.

Recent examples come to mind:

• Be a Catholic in England
• Be a Protestant in England
• Be an atheist in many countries
• Spank your kids
• Teach your kids evolution
• Be gay
• Be Jewish in Mexico or Germany
• Discuss any of that stuff on the internet