China and Internet/Cyber-Censorship Issue

To start off, honestly I never really cared too much about China's censorship issues because despite I'm not in favour of it, it doesn't impact me all that much. I don't live there and rarely travel there (and if I do, I don't stay for long). I only get annoyed by the inconvenience of no Facebook, YouTube, and difficulty finding porn the ol' school way, but those are just small things that you have to deal with when you travel, kinda like squat toilets.(it's kinda how things are).

However yesterday I saw this article on SCMP and had a fellow member quote it for me(cause I ran outta free articles on SCMP and I'm too broke to subscribe lol), and I'm outraged by what the report said.

China’s cyber regulator says all mainland internet users must register real personal details
Amid fears for free speech, just how the use of real names will be enforced remains unclear

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 04 February, 2015, 9:58am
UPDATED : Thursday, 05 February, 2015, 4:43pm

The mainland's 649 million internet users will be required to register their real identities under new rules imposed by the cyber regulator yesterday as the nation continues to tighten its grip on free speech.

The new regulation, expected to come into effect next month, will require internet users to submit identity details to website administrators for all online accounts, including blogs, instant messaging platforms, Twitter-like microblogs and forums.

People can still choose an alias and profile pictures, but they must register their real names with web administrators, Xu Feng , chief of the mainland's top internet watchdog, told mainland media yesterday.

But aliases or pictures considered inappropriate, misrepre-sentative or a threat to national security will be banned. This will put an end to people using the names of foreign leaders such as "Putin" or "Obama" as their online identities.

The regulator did not elaborate on how the measure would be implemented or whether it would be retrospective.

China has the world's largest internet population, recently reaching 649 million, the China Internet Network Information Centre said this week. Of that number, 557 million or 85 per cent access the internet via a mobile phone.

Xu said the new measures would help eliminate untrustworthy, incorrect or misleading information.

The regulation states that user names must not contain information that breaches the nation's laws and constitution, threatens national security, leaks state secrets, damages the public interest and religious policies or incites ethnic disputes. User names that incited social instability, defamed others or were related to pornography, gambling, violence or terrorism, would also be banned.

The mainland launched a review of real-name registration for instant messaging services late last year, Xu said. More than 80 per cent of users of Wechat, the mainland's most popular messaging service, had since registered their real identity information, The Beijing News reported.

The latest move concerned some activists.

"It is unclear how they will implement the policy, possibly by using registered mobile phone numbers or identity cards," human rights blogger Mo Zhixu said.

"But [under the policy] activists may find it difficult to make critical comments on the internet. It is more likely to lead to self-censorship on the internet."

Meanwhile, the Supreme People's Court handed down an interpretation guideline yesterday allowing online chat records, blogs, microblogs, mobile messages and any other digital information to be included as evidence during civil trials, China News Service reported.

Digital records have been included as evidence for criminal cases for some years.

"Allowing digital records to be included as court evidence could help identify the truth," Beijing lawyer Liu Zilong said.

"But there still needs to be certification measures in place to verify the legitimacy of the information."

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Honestly I find that totally unacceptable and hideous. This is probably the WORST restriction on freedom of expression and intrusion of privacy to date. Imagine MOST of what we expressed and discussed in this forum gets censored/deleted. Next up, you also know they're pretty much monitoring you for everything that goes under your account, including accounts you may not remember anymore.

Some say Beijing had been clamping down on freedom of expression and information the recent years, particularly since Hu's era. While that's what some said and I don't really care what they say there, THIS is a definite proof of a HUGE step backwards for China when it comes to freedom of information. This also means we won't be seeing YouTube and Facebook in China anytime soon, which now I feel is better as I won't want a watered down version of what I'm used to.

Anyways I think we should kinda discuss this because this is something that affects all of us, namely freedom of cyberspace, expression, internet freedom. I can't imagine how the SDF mods if they happened to be in China, their works in moderating forums like this will be affected. Let's also not forget the millions of disgruntled Chinese brothers who will be forced to admit whichever porn account and now how the gov't can see whatever preferences they possess, whether it be petite or BBW. This is not to mention the earlier reports that China is about to step up its firewall game to block of VPN as well. I seriously can't but help feel China is getting as bad as it can get to become a closed-off world of its own cut off from the rest of the world in terms of information. In my opinion this also slows down the pace and rate for people to get educated and be informed through information and ideas that can be available through sharing amongst peers, although of course not all are quality information.

More terrible terrible PR campaign by Beijing. Ironic as it is, even in Daesh one may have freer access to YouTube and maybe internet in general than China, and we're talking about a messed up hell on Earth practicing the most extreme version of Sharia Law..

I seriously want to just flip the table on that minister's face. Oh and if that cyber slavery law had passed and if I had posted this in China, they'd had deleted it all too.

I believe Beijing are doing this to combat spies and terrorists from sending messages and propaganda to each other. You know kind of like Homeland security act. Until the threat is over or when the time is right than you can have a little more internet freedom. I'm wondering if this will come into play for the next generation internet technology that China suppose to launch next year.

There are people in the US pushing the same thing in order to stop anonymous attacks on politicians, celebrities, and to stop the bullying of children in social media. Is this another example of the act isn't the crime, but instead who commits the act and who's the victim of that act. That's unequal under the law and you know what that means... The reason said to concern people is not the real reason.

Equation said:

I believe Beijing are doing this to combat spies and terrorists from sending messages and propaganda to each other. You know kind of like Homeland security act. Until the threat is over or when the time is right than you can have a little more internet freedom. I'm wondering if this will come into play for the next generation internet technology that China suppose to launch next year.

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I thought about this too, and that's why I said terrible PR campaign. Whereas Western states produce their equivalent of various surveillance bills and laws, NONE had been so explicit or that extensive and arbitrary in terms of trying to touch you all over. They either do it behind your back and quietly, or pass bills with implicits and sufficient ambiguity or at least not so overt in saying I'll look at everything you do. China on the other hand, is totally different, and doing it the worse way possible.

While I also disagree with Harper or Patriot Act or NSA or other Western intelligence sneaky peeky actions, they again at least do put/give enough Fs about the public sentiments and the public, HRW groups, activists can actually voice about it. China's like, right in your face about it, and not caring what you think at all.

Also the issues with these bills is, often they're left ambiguous in terms of avoiding key words that can flare you up, so in other words at least they don't seem to state directly gonna take away your privacies and rights. The same sword is that also you won't know if your rights could potentially be in jeopardy and also the duration of the bill in effect. Thus why wordings are on the top of critic's minds while ambiguity and duration are often for concerned citizens and activists' primary concerns..all of which they have good reasons in investigating.

And again there's no knowing for sure if this is merely for counterterrorism or for cracking down on other voices critical of the government. Also if given the contexts of how it was framed, there's barely any gesture this is for CT-related rather than for general-purpose.

Finally, China as authoritarian with terrible track records up to recent years when it comes to human rights and censorship makes them have even less social points, credibility, and trusts in terms off this field. Again as I've mentioned in a previous thread....even IF China means for the best(and by the scheme of things of this bill,it doesn't feel so), they have such terrible impression and history and issues with people not trusting them, that what they do will always not be assumed too generously by others and for good reasons. And also often when they make a gesture, it's gestures like this type of bill which just makes them worse off.

And just to drag a little off-topic, the same goes with how HK government makes public statements the past year. They would say things that are too high profile, sound extremely pretentious and flamebait people more than anything. For example after incidents of police brutality that was also reported in the latest HRW report, public officials, rather than say things like "we will investigate" or make more cautious statements, they said things "the police handling of the event was like a kind mother handling a child", when you still have people recovering from broken bones from police baton strikes. It's lip services like these that makes the government even less credible, creates even more anger for their shameless statements. You don't see the States department or Canadian politicians saying these things, and when they do, they also get sh!t for it and the politicians usually come out apologizing.

Sometimes I just lose hope in this country, and I'm losing hope in HK gov't with this impotent administration, and also the Harper regime. Ugh

AssassinsMace said:

There are people in the US pushing the same thing in order to stop anonymous attacks on politicians, celebrities, and to stop the bullying of children in social media. Is this another example of the act isn't the crime, but instead who commits the act and who's the victim of that act. That's unequal under the law and you know what that means... The reason said to concern people is not the real reason.

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Don't get me wrong, I'm opposed to NSA surveillance, the recent bill Harper is trying to pass, regardless of country, and all that stuff....while also feel law enforcements need to take cybercrime seriously and be empowered in the right way, to tackle and hold those people accountable for their senseless actions. A teenage girl called Amanda Todd committed suicide years ago after suffering YEARS of cyberbullying which led to real bullying in life which destroyed her life completely, not to mention hate/revenge porn in the US. I was shaken by her tragedy as much as Goto and the pilot's execution, and I hate these bullying and harassment with a passion. I also think the gov't should make use of the internet to assist their investigation efforts against real threats, but the question always have been, the means, and how so. How should our privacies, rights be guaranteed with a reasonable scope, and how should the internet be governed, if so. I am disgruntled when some a-hole started sharing the pilot's execution video on Facebook and I reported it to the Facebook admin, who like always, refused to take it down. (Their internet oversight literally never does anything; it's just there for show) , so I do feel the net should have some effective oversight somewhat so things that should be removed is done so. So yea, if Chinese censors those Daesh videos, then I'm all for it, but not when they're shutting our voices out or the Occupy or June 4th or reports of food poisoning or just things not of actual threat to the state...and most aren't.

I think my biggest concern is ambiguity, like most people, but for this incident, the scope this law will be encompassing and it's to essentially everyone.

Also I don't think it's right to force people to register their real information and all their accounts. I'd believe IP trace and things like those, if you're really dealing with real terrorists, are much more helpful.

I don't think this is really a new issue, it's been ongoing for a few years now.

Anyway, I think I'm too jaded to be outraged by this, I personally think making people register their real names for everything is going to become common place in the near future. Current anonymity will probably be considered the "wild west" of the internet in a few decades.

Personally I assume that the NSA reads everything I write, and that the power through information technology means they and governments wield is enough to ruin my life or silence me without too much hassle if they don't like what I'm saying. I think it's a fair trade for the convenience of the internet. I think even with the heaviest kind of internet surveillance and censorship that China might implement, there is still a meaningful net increase in freedom of expression compared to a few decades ago.

Bltizo said:

I don't think this is really a new issue, it's been ongoing for a few years now.

Anyway, I think I'm too jaded to be outraged by this, I personally think making people register their real names for everything is going to become common place in the near future. Current anonymity will probably be considered the "wild west" of the internet in a few decades.

Personally I assume that the NSA reads everything I write, and that the power through information technology means they and governments wield is enough to ruin my life or silence me without too much hassle if they don't like what I'm saying. I think it's a fair trade for the convenience of the internet. I think even with the heaviest kind of internet surveillance and censorship that China might implement, there is still a meaningful net increase in freedom of expression compared to a few decades ago.

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For all fairness, that is true that there's improvement, although the step backward, particularly something, is kind of disappointing.

By the way is that Zeratul in your avatar? Why is it sort of transparent? He looks kinda holographic

airsuperiority said:

For all fairness, that is true that there's improvement, although the step backward, particularly something, is kind of disappointing.

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I see it as three steps forward, two steps back. Net forward of one.

By the way is that Zeratul in your avatar? Why is it sort of transparent? He looks kinda holographic

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It's the portrait for a carrier, it's kind of out of focus I think because the resolution doesn't fit the new forum layout. I should probably get it changed, I haven't played starcraft in years.

Bltizo said:

I see it as three steps forward, two steps back. Net forward of one.



It's the portrait for a carrier, it's kind of out of focus I think because the resolution doesn't fit the new forum layout. I should probably get it changed, I haven't played starcraft in years.

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I'm anxiously waiting for the 3rd to come out. I didn't play 2nd, but the story is interesting enough for me to read its plot lol