China Continues to Pressure New Media
August 23rd, 2007 by Dan GillmorAP: Chinese blog providers ‘encouraged’ to register users with their real names. Blog service providers in China are “encouraged” to register users with their real names and contact information, according to a new government document that tones down an earlier proposal banning anonymous online blogging. At least 10 major Chinese blog service providers have agreed to sign the “self-discipline pledge” issued by the Internet Society of China, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported Tuesday.
So it’s yet more Big Brotherism from a regime that considers intellectual freedom a danger to the state.
Anonymity has its place in the world, and a dictatorship is one of those places.
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August 23rd, 2007 at 8:28 pm
The legislation to require real name registration is old news, but isn’t this an article showing how democracy has at least a tiny voice in China rather than “yet more Big Brotherism from a regime that considers intellectual freedom a danger to the state”? “Fierce Opposition” got the requirement knocked down to a mere suggestion, one that blogsites are unlikely to follow since they’d lose users in the process. If you think the pledge is evidence against that, it only covers “illegal information”; so while a blogger could have his blog shut down for criticizing the government, there would be no immediate way to identify him. IP tracking could be done, but given all the Internet cafes in China, it wouldn’t exactly be easy.
August 24th, 2007 at 6:11 am
This legislation would be very difficult to enforce as Shaan says. I don’t see the “self-discipline” pledge working. How is it possible for blog service providers to monitor ALL their users and who is to say people will hand over the correct information. The Chinese authorities would have to do something drastic to end or seriously cut the amount of people blogging.
August 31st, 2007 at 3:28 pm
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