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Internet China Drops Blog Identity Plan
Michael Hoffman (Blog) - May 24, 2007 7:36 AM
Print 14 comment(s) - last by dsx724.. on May 29 at 1:03 PM
The Chinese government decided to make a slight compromise with the nation's 20 million bloggers

The Chinese government today backed off a proposal that would have forced all bloggers in China to register their real identities with a real-name registration system.  At the time it was thought up, the Internet Society of China (ISC) said it believed the identification system would have held bloggers more responsible for publicly published content.

The ISC, with support from the Chinese Ministry of Information Industry, came up with a new system for Chinese bloggers.  Instead of forcing bloggers to use real names when registering for a blog, the organizations will rather encourage bloggers to use their real name.  People who voluntarily use their real names can publish with a psuedonym in all blogs, and must have their confidentiality protected by blog service providers.

"It (real-name) will impair the free spirit of the Internet," said Zhang Chaoyang, CEO of a company which has registered millions of blog users in China.

China has an estimated 20 million bloggers, many of whom rallied together to protest the real-name system.  The blogging community has been supportive of the new approach the Chinese government has taken regarding public blogs.

China has previously been known for limiting Internet access and imposing crackdowns on what users may and may not have open access to.

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What compromise?
By redbone75 on 5/24/2007 9:01:26 AM , Rating: 5
quote:
People who voluntarily use their real names can publish with a pseudonym in all blogs, and must have their confidentiality protected by blog service providers.

Now how exactly does that differ from forcing people to use their real identities? In China there is no such thing as civil liberty, so when the government "recommends" you use your real name it is not a recommendation at all. Besides, what is the point in being able to use a pseudonym if your true identity is known? The blog service providers will instantly turn over any information to the government if it is demanded of them.




RE: What compromise?
By zornundo on 5/24/2007 10:44:42 AM , Rating: 2
I'm guessing officials realized they don't need names at all. Just some IP logs. That, and some 'encouragement' for ISP's.


RE: What compromise?
By noxipoo on 5/24/2007 6:15:32 PM , Rating: 2
people i know in china has DSL from the phone company which is government owned already. no need for encouragement either way, i couldn't access half the sites i visit when i was over there anyway. porn was not censored, i had to try :D


RE: What compromise?
By mindless1 on 5/24/2007 11:29:48 AM , Rating: 2
That it's voluntary to provide your true identity.


Interesting
By EODetroit on 5/24/2007 10:09:27 AM , Rating: 2
I was interested by the part requiring ISPs to keep the blogger's identity confidential if they registered. Can non-Chinese register themselves and post on Chinese blog sites, knowing they will never be turned in for what they say? If you're not talking bad about China (there's plenty of other targets in the world China won't care about), is China now your haven?




RE: Interesting
By Screwballl on 5/24/2007 11:17:10 AM , Rating: 2
This is where the China government contracts with Chinese mafia and makes you disappear. (a joke.... kind of)


RE: Interesting
By alifbaa on 5/24/2007 3:23:42 PM , Rating: 2
They don't need to outsource that kind of work, they have an in-house staff for that. (not a joke)


RE: Interesting
By cheetah2k on 5/24/2007 10:39:47 PM , Rating: 2
After living in HK for 7 years, you hear lots of what goes on here and in the mainland. Infact i have heard that to put a hit on someone it only takes knowing the right people and HK$10k.

Gone are the days of kidnapping your family, now days they just make you disappear.


RE: Interesting
By johsawyercjs on 5/26/2007 6:54:57 PM , Rating: 2
But parts of you get to show up again, after they harvest your organs to sell to rich people and party members. Not a joke.


who cares?
By dsx724 on 5/24/2007 10:37:16 PM , Rating: 2
the criticism of chinese policies are kind of fruitless. the government as a whole works better than most governments. although corruption at local levels are high, the punishment is endlessly long and very cold, literally. as with most good centralized authoritorian governments, it gets things done when they need to be done and they can care less about popular opinion. its a country runned by engineers, not by politicians, religion, or crazed maniacs. and they really make it clear that life sucks. it's a struggle, not a game, deal with it. most people in china already understand this, just not the rest of the world.




RE: who cares?
By brenatevi on 5/25/2007 3:12:54 AM , Rating: 2
This is a very interesting point of view. I'm just curious if you have read about China's Cultural Revolution during the 1970's (iirc) and the people that were killed in the name of paranoia. And under a Communist regime, it doesn't take much for such purgings to happen.

And I would probably be "disappeared" just for pointing out that such things have and can happen again. So, you can talk about "getting things done without regards to popular opinion" all you want, but if you look at the history of Chine, and other autocratic regimes, you'd find out that there is a very sharp price paid for it.


RE: who cares?
By johsawyercjs on 5/26/2007 7:13:47 PM , Rating: 2
dsx724 has an odd point of view. First, criticism of Chinese government policies is not fruitless--it's succeeded, so far, in beginning to tone down a few of their more draconian measures which don't amount to "good government", but rather paranoid political beliefs typical of authoritarian governments afraid of secret elections. China needs more criticism, and it'll keep getting it until it becomes sane.

By definition, a government that doesn't allow secret ballots is not a government that "as a whole, works better than most governments"--authoritarian regimes never work better than open, democratic societies, unless you choose to redefine what "better" means, which is a stupid exercise. Snubbing "popular opinion" is different from outright not allowing people to do things they should be allowed to do, and different from penalizing people unduly.

And what's so grand about having a country run by engineers? I'm one, sort of, and they're no better qualified to run a country than anyone else of any specific job description--it takes people of all job descriptions. Even a career politician is, on average, no better or worse than anyone else at governing. I do have to agree that it's better not to have anyone governing who's too much into religion, but the Chinese "cultural revolution" was a secular form of religion with its own craziness, and a lot of it still influences Chinese government.

And as far as life sucking--sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. It is largely a struggle, but it certainly isn't nothing but. And it isn't the job of one's nation's government to tell people life sucks all the time, and to enforce that defeatist point of view.

And as far as the original topic of this article: it's typical of the weird way the current Chinese government operates--it's as if one half of their brain doesn't know about the operation of the other half. It's also typical of a child trying to get away with something in plain sight, until someone has to point out to them how silly they're being. Nobody's fooled, so it's always surprising how outfits like the current Chinese government try to institute oddness like this.


RE: who cares?
By dsx724 on 5/29/2007 1:03:03 PM , Rating: 2
I retract my statement about all criticism being fruitless, but the junk you hear on western media is ridicules. The critism has advanced china towards western philosophy on some points but it still retains most of its old philosophical beliefs. However, labelling it as ineffective, immoral, or insane is just folly. Even governments have growing pains and the chinese government provided growth in all respects where other governments have failed horribly.

There is no such thing as a better government. Authoritarian governments have shaped history and advanced society far more than democratic ones. Democratic or representative governments often prevent or at least put off harm to the masses for more compromising terms instead of facing problems head on. Democratic govs follows the fads and ignorance of the masses unlike good authoritarian governments.

When i said engineers ran the society, I meant that politicans consulted social, economic, and tech engineers before promising the people. They more follow the lines of reason instead of arrogance. This they learned after the great leap forward, which is critical to the development of the chinese government. This is why most people in china actually have trust in their government despite high unemployment rates and social inequalities.


Ok....
By cheetah2k on 5/24/2007 10:34:48 PM , Rating: 2
What this will do is push the majority of mainland Chinese to start blogging on sites not registered in China.

To be honest, knowing what the Chinese government is capable of doing, I would be very hesitant to provide ones identity the way they are suggesting, in the land of the Red Army.




"I'm an Internet expert too. It's all right to wire the industrial zone only, but there are many problems if other regions of the North are wired." -- North Korean Supreme Commander Kim Jong-il











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