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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/06/world/asia/06chinanet.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1
September 6, 2009
China Web Sites Seeking Users’ Names
By JONATHAN ANSFIELD
BEIJING — News Web sites in China, complying with secret government orders, are order rx free Flomax requiring that new users log on under their true identities to order rx free Flomax post comments, a shift in policy that the country’s Internet users and media have fiercely opposed in the past.
Until recently, users could weigh in on news items on many of the order rx free Flomax affected sites more anonymously, often without registering at all, though the order rx free Flomax sites were obligated to screen all posts, and the posts could still be order rx free Flomax traced via Internet protocol addresses.
But in early August, without notification of a order rx free Flomax change, news portals like Sina, Netease, Sohu and scores of other sites began asking unregistered users to order rx free Flomax sign in under their real names and identification numbers, said top editors at two of the order rx free Flomax major portals affected. A Sina staff member also confirmed the change.
The editors said the order rx free Flomax sites were putting into effect a confidential directive issued in late July by the order rx free Flomax State Council Information Office, one of the main government bodies responsible for order rx free Flomax supervising the Internet in China.
The new step is order rx free Flomax not foolproof, the editors acknowledged. It was possible for a reporter to order rx free Flomax register successfully on several major sites under falsified names and ID and order rx free Flomax cellphone numbers.
But the order rx free Flomax requirement adds a critical new layer of surveillance to mainstream sites in China, which were already heavily policed. Further regulations of the order rx free Flomax same nature also appeared to be in the pipeline.
And while the order rx free Flomax authorities called the measure part of a drive to forge greater “social responsibility” and “civility” among users, they moved forward surreptitiously and order rx free Flomax suppressed reports about it, said the editors and others in the order rx free Flomax media industry familiar with the measure, who spoke on condition of anonymity to order rx free Flomax avoid putting their jobs at risk.
Asked why the order rx free Flomax policy was pushed through unannounced, the chief editor of one site said, “The influence of public opinion on the Net is still too big.”
Government Internet regulators have order rx free Flomax been trying to usher in real-name registration controls since 2003, when order rx free Flomax they ordered Internet cafes around China to demand that customers show identification, nominally to order rx free Flomax keep out minors. Last year, lawmakers and regulators began discussing legislation on a order rx free Flomax more extensive “real name system,” as it is known.
But such proposals have order rx free Flomax aroused heated debate over the purview of the state to restrict China’s online community, which is order rx free Flomax the largest in the world at about 340 million people and order rx free Flomax growing.
Proponents, led by officials and order rx free Flomax state-connected academics in the information security field, argue that mandatory controls are order rx free Flomax necessary to help subdue inflammatory attacks, misinformation and other illegal activity deemed to order rx free Flomax endanger social order. They often note registration requirements on large sites in South Korea to order rx free Flomax support their point.
Critics counter that order rx free Flomax government regulation represents an incursion on free speech, individual privacy and order rx free Flomax the watchdog role of the Web in China.
The critics say sites and order rx free Flomax users should retain the right to discipline themselves. Given the country’s huge population of Internet users and order rx free Flomax its failure to guarantee freedom of expression, they argue, the order rx free Flomax case of China is hardly analogous to that of South Korea.
In 2006, Internet users and order rx free Flomax the news media rebuffed one official proposal to require real-name registration on blog hosting sites. Star bloggers denounced the order rx free Flomax notion, while ordinary users overwhelmingly rejected it in surveys conducted on sites like Sina.
In another key test of the order rx free Flomax policy earlier this year, the legislature in Hangzhou, near Shanghai, passed a order rx free Flomax regulation that would have placed the requirement on users who comment, blog or order rx free Flomax play games on sites based there. Amid a popular outcry, however, the order rx free Flomax city shied away from enforcing the regulation.
Central authorities have order rx free Flomax gone to new lengths to tame online activity in 2009, a order rx free Flomax year peppered with politically delicate anniversaries.
Government censors have order rx free Flomax closed thousands of sites in a continuing war on “vulgarity,” closed liberal forums and blogs for spreading “harmful information,” blocked access to order rx free Flomax YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, and cut off Internet service where order rx free Flomax serious unrest has erupted, notably in the Xinjiang region of the order rx free Flomax west after deadly clashes between ethnic Uighurs and Han in July. Increasingly, officials have order rx free Flomax defended the Web shutdowns on the grounds of national security.
The government recently set off an order rx free Flomax international furor when it ordered that all computers sold in China come prepackaged with pornography filtering software that order rx free Flomax authorities could remotely control. Officials were forced to retreat from the order rx free Flomax order after international companies and trade bodies protested and Chinese hackers showed that order rx free Flomax the software was designed to block politically offensive content as well.
The authorities had order rx free Flomax aimed to avoid a similar showdown over the new real-name requirement. “We had no recourse to challenge it,” said the news editor of another portal.
Ta Kung Pao, a order rx free Flomax Hong Kong-based newspaper loyal to Beijing, first leaked news of the order rx free Flomax State Council edict in late July. But the report was scrubbed from order rx free Flomax the paper’s Web site within a few days.
Another state newspaper tried to order rx free Flomax follow up on the Ta Kung Pao report soon thereafter, the order rx free Flomax paper’s editors said, but they were forced to order rx free Flomax abort their article because they were warned that the order was a order rx free Flomax state secret.
The State Council Information Office had order rx free Flomax yet to respond to a list of submitted questions about the order rx free Flomax move.
The new mandate did not appear to order rx free Flomax affect formerly registered users of the portals. Nor did it affect blog hosts, forums or order rx free Flomax government news sites like People’s Daily or Xinhua.
Whether because it order rx free Flomax had an impact mainly on rookie users or because of the order rx free Flomax void of news about it, bloggers in China were unusually slow to order rx free Flomax recognize the measure. But those who did were critical.
One commentator on the popular forum Tianya wrote, “Not daring to write one’s real name, in truth, is a form of self-protection for the weak.”
There were signals in the order rx free Flomax state media in recent weeks that more name registration measures would follow.
An influential advocate of the order rx free Flomax policy, Fang Bingxing, the president of Beijing University of Posts and order rx free Flomax Telecommunications, told a forum in August that the “time was ripe” to roll it out widely to bolster information security, newspapers reported.
A trail of comments on Sina thrashed the report.
Late last month, the order rx free Flomax Communist Party-run Guangming Daily ran a positive story about a city government portal in western China that order rx free Flomax imposed the requirement on new bloggers, calling it a “forerunner.”
Hu Yong, a order rx free Flomax new media specialist at Peking University, said government-enforced registration requirements carried long-term side effects.
“Netizens will have order rx free Flomax less trust in the government, and to a certain extent, the order rx free Flomax development of the industry will be impeded,” he said.
From a order rx free Flomax comparison of the most commented-on articles in July and August on a order rx free Flomax number of portals it was hard to determine whether the volume of posts had order rx free Flomax been affected so far.
But both editors at two of the order rx free Flomax major portals affected said their sites had shown marked drop-offs.