Last week reports started flying around that China's Ministry of Information Industry would begin requiring Chinese bloggers to register for their blogs using their real names and ID numbers. With spoofing, Internet mobs and other rowdy Internet behavior garnering a lot of attention, this was meant to be part of the Government's push for more civilized Internet use. Naturally concerns of censorship were raised, especially among sensitized foreigners. However, it's not time to push the panic button just yet. Not only does it turn out that the regulation is only in discussion, but it seems like a law that would be difficult to enforce.

A good recap of the issue can be found in a Red Herring article by Beijing burea chief Kaiser Kuo:

Chinese proponents of real-name registration for blogs, bulletin board systems, and other online forums argue that the rules are needed to promote a civility in discourse now conspicuously lacking on the Chinese Internet.

They also believe real-name registration would reduce IP theft, as bloggers posting proprietary content could be prosecuted.

Critics naturally view an end to anonymity as a threat to privacy and a further curb on free speech. But would additional censorial safeguards be necessary, or effective?

Neither, said Rebecca MacKinnon, a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School and a close observer of the Chinese blogging scene.

"Chinese domestic blog-hosting companies already employ dozens if not hundreds of people to censor content on the blogs they host--if not delete offending blogs altogether," she said. "I guess the authorities don't feel they're doing a thorough enough job."

Enforcement of real-name registration would be extremely difficult, said Isaac Mao, a popular Shanghai-based blogger and one of China's first blog activists.

This is not the first time this kind of thing has been tried by Chinese regulators. As Jeremy Goldkorn of Danwei pointed out (NSFW, oddly), a similar stunt was tried in 2005, but it had little effect because it applied only to bloggers who ran their own servers. Any new regulation would no doubt be wider-ranging. However, last year it was also announced that users of previously anonymous prepaid mobile phone accounts would have to register their real names to maintain their service. That regulation seems to have been slow in moving into enforcement (apparently it will come into force in 2007). So the jury is still out on how well these kinds of regulations will work in practice.

Chinese bloggers and media have, meanwhile, been making their own opinions known. Danwei has translated a good post from Chinese blogger Wang Xiaofeng, who thinks the Internet should be experienced, warts and all:

[Even though] I am often at the receiving end abuse from the trolls and pests of the Internet, I don't want a real-name system. Being uncivilized is one of the important features of the Internet.

Being uncivilized is also an important characteristic of Beijingers. You can't just pretend to be civilized for a few days because you're holding the Olympic Games, it's not realistic. You can't just prove that you are civilized by forcing people to use real names on the Internet, that's just cheating yourself and everyone around you.

Rather than seeing the Internet become completely civilized and perfect, I want to see it with warts and all. This is the best way to understand China's real situation. There are fucking idiots everywhere, especially on the Internet. Just because an idiot is prevented from saying uncivilized things, doesn't mean that he is not still a [scorching obscenity deleted] idiot.

Do blogs really infringe on people's privacy? They can, but you have to ask how many of those 17.5 million blogs have infringed on someone's right to privacy? Very few, I believe; if it's even 1 percent, this society is in a muddle. You can't say that all blogs are that way just because of a few disputes and rights infringements.

The China Media Project also has an interesting rundown of Chinese media response to the regulations. Coming on the heels of Chongqing municipality's recently announced anti-Internet spoofing regulations, the risk seems to be not so much from some kind of coherent--if restrictive--national policy, but from a ghastly soup of provincial and local regulations that might spring up.

Related links:

• Via Virtual China, the Interlocals blog with a scholarly analysis of China's spoofing culture.


• From the International Herald Tribune, an article in which China's information minister explains why Western media have got China's media control regimen all wrong, and why "man bites dog" stories are a unique feature of western media.


• From the China Daily, a "man bites dog" news story. Literally. But, then, this is the Chinese newspaper for foreigners, so it's just tailoring to our tastes.


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