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September 6, 2009
China Web Sites Seeking Users’ Names
By JONATHAN ANSFIELD

BEIJING — News Web sites in China, complying with secret government orders, are Zithromax from india requiring that new users log on under their true identities to Zithromax from india 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 Zithromax from india affected sites more anonymously, often without registering at all, though the Zithromax from india sites were obligated to screen all posts, and the posts could still be Zithromax from india traced via Internet protocol addresses.

But in early August, without notification of a Zithromax from india change, news portals like Sina, Netease, Sohu and scores of other sites began asking unregistered users to Zithromax from india sign in under their real names and identification numbers, said top editors at two of the Zithromax from india major portals affected. A Sina staff member also confirmed the change.

The editors said the Zithromax from india sites were putting into effect a confidential directive issued in late July by the Zithromax from india State Council Information Office, one of the main government bodies responsible for Zithromax from india supervising the Internet in China.

The new step is Zithromax from india not foolproof, the editors acknowledged. It was possible for a reporter to Zithromax from india register successfully on several major sites under falsified names and ID and Zithromax from india cellphone numbers.

But the Zithromax from india requirement adds a critical new layer of surveillance to mainstream sites in China, which were already heavily policed. Further regulations of the Zithromax from india same nature also appeared to be in the pipeline.

And while the Zithromax from india authorities called the measure part of a drive to forge greater “social responsibility” and “civility” among users, they moved forward surreptitiously and Zithromax from india suppressed reports about it, said the editors and others in the Zithromax from india media industry familiar with the measure, who spoke on condition of anonymity to Zithromax from india avoid putting their jobs at risk.

Asked why the Zithromax from india 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 Zithromax from india been trying to usher in real-name registration controls since 2003, when Zithromax from india they ordered Internet cafes around China to demand that customers show identification, nominally to Zithromax from india keep out minors. Last year, lawmakers and regulators began discussing legislation on a Zithromax from india more extensive “real name system,” as it is known.

But such proposals have Zithromax from india aroused heated debate over the purview of the state to restrict China’s online community, which is Zithromax from india the largest in the world at about 340 million people and Zithromax from india growing.

Proponents, led by officials and Zithromax from india state-connected academics in the information security field, argue that mandatory controls are Zithromax from india necessary to help subdue inflammatory attacks, misinformation and other illegal activity deemed to Zithromax from india endanger social order. They often note registration requirements on large sites in South Korea to Zithromax from india support their point.

Critics counter that Zithromax from india government regulation represents an incursion on free speech, individual privacy and Zithromax from india the watchdog role of the Web in China.

The critics say sites and Zithromax from india users should retain the right to discipline themselves. Given the country’s huge population of Internet users and Zithromax from india its failure to guarantee freedom of expression, they argue, the Zithromax from india case of China is hardly analogous to that of South Korea.

In 2006, Internet users and Zithromax from india the news media rebuffed one official proposal to require real-name registration on blog hosting sites. Star bloggers denounced the Zithromax from india notion, while ordinary users overwhelmingly rejected it in surveys conducted on sites like Sina.
In another key test of the Zithromax from india policy earlier this year, the legislature in Hangzhou, near Shanghai, passed a Zithromax from india regulation that would have placed the requirement on users who comment, blog or Zithromax from india play games on sites based there. Amid a popular outcry, however, the Zithromax from india city shied away from enforcing the regulation.

Central authorities have Zithromax from india gone to new lengths to tame online activity in 2009, a Zithromax from india year peppered with politically delicate anniversaries.

Government censors have Zithromax from india closed thousands of sites in a continuing war on “vulgarity,” closed liberal forums and blogs for spreading “harmful information,” blocked access to Zithromax from india YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, and cut off Internet service where Zithromax from india serious unrest has erupted, notably in the Xinjiang region of the Zithromax from india west after deadly clashes between ethnic Uighurs and Han in July. Increasingly, officials have Zithromax from india defended the Web shutdowns on the grounds of national security.

The government recently set off an Zithromax from india international furor when it ordered that all computers sold in China come prepackaged with pornography filtering software that Zithromax from india authorities could remotely control. Officials were forced to retreat from the Zithromax from india order after international companies and trade bodies protested and Chinese hackers showed that Zithromax from india the software was designed to block politically offensive content as well.

The authorities had Zithromax from india 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 Zithromax from india Hong Kong-based newspaper loyal to Beijing, first leaked news of the Zithromax from india State Council edict in late July. But the report was scrubbed from Zithromax from india the paper’s Web site within a few days.

Another state newspaper tried to Zithromax from india follow up on the Ta Kung Pao report soon thereafter, the Zithromax from india paper’s editors said, but they were forced to Zithromax from india abort their article because they were warned that the order was a Zithromax from india state secret.

The State Council Information Office had Zithromax from india yet to respond to a list of submitted questions about the Zithromax from india move.

The new mandate did not appear to Zithromax from india affect formerly registered users of the portals. Nor did it affect blog hosts, forums or Zithromax from india government news sites like People’s Daily or Xinhua.

Whether because it Zithromax from india had an impact mainly on rookie users or because of the Zithromax from india void of news about it, bloggers in China were unusually slow to Zithromax from india 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 Zithromax from india state media in recent weeks that more name registration measures would follow.

An influential advocate of the Zithromax from india policy, Fang Bingxing, the president of Beijing University of Posts and Zithromax from india 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 Zithromax from india Communist Party-run Guangming Daily ran a positive story about a city government portal in western China that Zithromax from india imposed the requirement on new bloggers, calling it a “forerunner.”

Hu Yong, a Zithromax from india new media specialist at Peking University, said government-enforced registration requirements carried long-term side effects.

“Netizens will have Zithromax from india less trust in the government, and to a certain extent, the Zithromax from india development of the industry will be impeded,” he said.

From a Zithromax from india comparison of the most commented-on articles in July and August on a Zithromax from india number of portals it was hard to determine whether the volume of posts had Zithromax from india been affected so far.

But both editors at two of the Zithromax from india major portals affected said their sites had shown marked drop-offs.