New Chinese Regulations Require Real Name On Internet

mpicpp sends word that starting March 1st, China will ban internet accounts that impersonate people or organizations, and will require that people use real names when registering accounts online. "As part of an effort to increase control over the Internet, China's government this week revealed new regulations that require Web users to register their real names. According to The Wall Street Journal, the rules apply to users of blogs, microblogs, instant messaging services, online discussion forums, news comment sections, and other related services. Beginning March 1, China will also ban Web accounts that impersonate people or organizations, Reuters said. That includes groups posing as government entities—the People's Daily state newspaper—and impersonations of foreign leaders, like President Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin."

Comments

Re:Give them some break, please.

[Chalnoth]

That would be nice, considering that Google has abandoned that policy entirely.

Facebook, on the other hand, seems to be stepping up the enforcement of their real name policy.

haha - using your real name in China

[rubycodez]

85 percent of the billion plus people populace uses one of a hundred surnames, and for common given names there's a couple dozen popular ones for male and for female........LOTS of people have the same name. "Hi I'm Tang Li!" "how about that, we've ten other ones in the class this year!"

Re:FCC

[cayenne8]

Sounds like what the FCC will do in the US eventually. Just give it some time until "for the children" or to fight "the terrorists" the FCC will require real names etc.

Yep, I was just about to say, that as much as we in the US bash China for lack of privacy and personal rights (including the right 'not to be seen')....there are a lot in the US government (fed and state) just salivating over ending anonymous access to the internet just as much as the Chinese.

The internet really snuck in under the radar of most governments, and Lord knows..if it came in to being today, it would not be nearly what we see today.

Slowly but surely, I fear the US will follow suit and require registration to log on, regulation....and an end to what has so far proven to be a very valuable means of freely expressing one's self and speaking out against issues that matter.