Last year the Ministry of Information Industry, China's technology and Internet regulator, announced that it would implement a rule requiring all bloggers to register their real names. Last week MII changed its mind, apparently in response to lobbying from the technology industry. Now the question is, will the new decision stick?

Despite everything you hear about censorship of China's Internet, it is in fact pretty lively. Chinese net users are prone to discuss just about anything, including some topics you might think taboo. Occasionally threads or topics get shut down, but, again despite the old --and somewhat dubious-- "30,000 net police" saw, it's just not possible to thoroughly police the whole thing.

Part of the problem is that the language changes, which makes it hard for automated filters to catch everything. Like net users everywhere, Chinese net-heads develop their own words and shorthand for topics, people and and products. CIC Data, a company that monitors the Chinese Internet for clients, has explained some the challenges from a corporate and product standpoint on their blog. The same idea applies to other things as well. National Public Radio in the US has reported in 2005 on how Chinese net surfers used euphemisms and codes to discuss disgraced Chinese premier Zhao Ziyang following his death.

Another reason why Chinese net surfers can push the limits is that they can be relatively anonymous. Surfers don't need to submit their real names or ID numbers to register to participate in forums or launch blogs. Anonymity is conducive to open discussion, but it comes with a dark side in that it is also conducive to threats, pornography and a host of other behaviors that the governemnt (in many cases with justification) considers undesirable. The concern isn't only with controlling political discussion, but also with simply trying to foster a "more civilized" Internet. This is something that Hu Jintao himself has emphasized.

Yes, it is often possible to use IP addresses and ISP and Internet cafe logs to identify authors, but it is a cumbersome and difficult process. Hence MII's attempts to enforce registration of bloggers' real names. Names wouldn't necessary be published on blogs, but blogging services would know who authors were, and be able to turn that information over to authorities when requested.

Reuters and the Wall Street Journal have both reported on the demise of this proposal, noting that industry pressure was largely responsible for the reversal. In the Journal, correspondent Jason Leow reports:

The government decided to backtrack on the real-name system after industry players argued that it would be impossible to implement.

Fang Xingdong, who owns a blogging company and attended at least four meetings with the Ministry of Information Industry to discuss the policy, told officials the system would kill companies like his. Mr. Fang is chairman and chief executive officer of bokee.com, one of China's biggest blog services that he says has 15 million registered users and is growing. The real-name policy would have required his company to crosscheck every user with data from the public security bureau. Trying to validate the massive volume of personal information would have been a logistical nightmare, he said.

"Imagine if I want to check a blogger from Zhejiang" province, said Mr. Fang, whose company is based in Beijing's Zhongguancun, China's Silicon Valley. "I don't have the technology."

So now China's blogging companies will be urged to comply "voluntarily".

This isn't the first time that this kind of proposal has come up on the rocks. Despite China's reputation for controlling its citizenry, anyone can get a new mobile phone number completely anonymously in a matter of moments. MII tried for two years to enforce registration for mobile phone numbers and ultimately gave up as China Mobile and China Unicom, the big mobile phone operators, argued that such a move would limit their growth.

Looks like the Chinese government isn't just discovering the power of the Internet. It's also discovering the power of corporate lobbying.

Update: See also Maya Alexandri's piece on the blogging self-discipline pledge and other voluntary compliance issues posted at Danwei.