China Drops Compulsory Blogger Identification Requirement

Via Middle East Times -

The fast-rising blogging population had been told late last year that they would be forced to identify themselves, in an effort to prevent anonymous people hiding in cyberspace and causing a "bad influence."

The registration plan was part of President Hu Jintao's campaign to "purify" the Internet, amid concern among China's communist leadership about the rapidly expanding power of new media.

But the official Xinhua news agency reported late Tuesday that the government now intends to drop compulsory identification following "outcries" from industry and netizens.

A new draft published this week by the Internet Society of China, a government-controlled industry association, says that real-name registration should be "encouraged" rather than made mandatory.

"Government departments have been promoting a real-name system for years, arguing it would force Internet users to watch their words and actions and to refrain from slander, pornography and dissemination of other 'harmful' information," Xinhua said.

"But the proposal has triggered protests from the Internet industry and the growing number of Internet users."

Xinhua cited the chief executive of popular Internet portal Sohu.com, Zhang Chaoyang, as reflecting widespread concerns that the government's initial plan would curtail much-enjoyed cyber freedoms.

"It [real-name registration] would impair the free spirit of the Internet," Zhang said.

However, industry chiefs indicated that the policy shift may simply have arisen because regulation would have been extremely difficult and costly to implement, according to Xinhua.