Real-name registration for microblogs may stifle debates

(Ecns.cn)--Authorities have decided to expand "online accountability" regulations to Twitter-like microblogging services known in China as weibos, where all users will be required to verify and use their real names by mid March.

Real-name registration has been in place for new members since the start of January, and those who fail to register with their real names by March 16 will be banned from posting on the Websites, according to Beijing authorities last week.

Weibo accounts hosted by the four major Internet companies Sina, Sohu, NetEase and Tencent will be subject to the new rule, authorities said.

"Currently, this type of registration is being tested in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen. We will extend it to other areas once the pilot programmes prove successful," the Guardian quoted Wang Chen, minister of the State Council Information Office.

"We will focus on newly registering users and then extend it to existing microbloggers," Wang added.

Yet with today's increasing concerns about online censorship and freedom of information around the globe, the new regulation has sparked heated debate over the growth of social networks and services that thrive on user-generated content.

Tang Jun, Secretary-General of the Social Policy Research Center at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, pointed out that the new policy should only be applied to areas concerning personal credit and national security, and that the public should be given as much freedom as possible in other areas.

The government claims that the practice is mainly to prevent harmful mistruths and rumors from getting circulated online, yet many skeptics worry that it might cast a chill over free expression on the country's liveliest online platforms.

An outlet to quickly communicate information and ideas, weibos have become the go-to platform for people with rumors and opinions. The sites often outpace China's news media on certain stories, noted the Global Post.

The state-run Xinhua News Agency reported that in 2011, Sina Weibo had as many as 20 million new user registrations per month. However, new registrations have dropped to only about 3 million since Sina started enforcing the real-name registration policy on January 1 this year.

An article on Penn-olson.com analyzed that either the new system is scaring away zombie account makers, or genuine users are being put off by the new policy. If it's the latter, then this could be a grim year for Sina and Tencent—as well as other major microblogging platforms—which may lose both new and existing users.

A survey of 363 Web users revealed that 283 respondents, or 78 percent, voted against the real-name system mainly for the reason that "the new rule is an invasion of privacy."

In another survey among current weibo users, 15 percent of the total 3,000 participants claimed to have stopped using weibo under the new system, and 37 percent chose to keep their accounts running without registering with their real names.

The Southern Weekend used South Korea—the first and only country in the world to implement real-name registration on the Internet—as an example, revealing that the number of Web users and postings had decreased by two thirds during the four years the policy was in place.

The country's major Websites have also become hacking targets since the system was implemented. Last July, personal information of about 35 million netizens was stolen in a hacking attack, including user IDs, passwords, resident registration numbers, names, mobile phone number and email addresses, reported the China Daily.

South Korean authorities therefore decided to abandon real-name registration starting this year.

The Guangzhou-based Southern Metropolis Weekly commented on January 9 that South Korea has provided a strong reference for other countries that are considering implementing the system.

Yet Chinese officials seem to be very optimistic about the new practice. A Beijing-based Internet regulator even told the state-run Global Times newspaper that the change was being welcomed by Internet users.

"The real-name system is welcomed by service providers and has won support from the majority of Web users. For the government, the move will promote social, economic and cultural development," the official reportedly said.

"For service providers, the real-name system will help build their credibility and eliminate the spread of rumors and false information."

Wang Chen explained that under the program, users could continue to use nicknames online, even though they would still be required to register their true identities.

He added that registration trials in five major eastern Chinese cities would continue until the wrinkles were worked out.

Real-name registration will have a chilling effect on some kinds of online comment, Hu Yong, an associate professor at the School of Journalism and Communications at Peking University told The New York Times in January during a telephone interview. But it remains to be seen how many users will be dissuaded from speaking out on controversial issues, Hu added.

"Certainly some people will not dare to speak out about certain issues," he said. "But a lot of people already are using their real names, even in discussing current affairs. And the user base of weibos is so huge that if something happens that highly concerns their own interests, I think you'll still hear a loud uproar。"