Will the real Web user please stand up?

• Source: The Global Times
• [21:47 May 21 2009]
• Comments

In the same report, Wu Junqing, director of the Information Office under the Economy and Information Committee of Zhejiang, said he and his colleagues had sent two proposals to the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province rejecting the idea.

“The regulation should be withdrawn for the time being because it’s not well designed, it’s not practical and it’s not at the stage to become legislation,” he said.

Rao Jin, owner of the Anti- CNN website, which rose to prominence after last year’s riots in Tibet, told the Global Times the policy will do nothing but upset Web users and increase IT firms’ costs.

“The government should encourage website owners to monitor rumors, personal attacks and abusive or violent language by their visitors, and encourage users to practice self-regulation online, rather than trying to control diverse opinions with administrative measures,” he said.

Yin Yungong, a professor at the Institute of Journalism and Communication under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times that in a mature, civil society it is right to have “real-name” policies for the Internet so that both officials and citizens know that while they have the right to criticize, they must also take responsibility for what they say.

“However, this pilot regulation went beyond the status quo and will do nothing but harm the surveillance power of online communities,” he said.

Anonymous tip-offs have been catalytic in settling or publicizing many disputed incidents, including the fake tiger photo in Shaanxi Province last year and the case of the inmate who was killed while supposedly playing hide-and-seek at a detention center in Yunnan Province earlier this year.

Even the Supreme People’s Procuratorate has used the Internet to expose wrongdoings, according to its revised working plan announced on April 23.

People at risk

Zhou Xiaozheng, a sociology professor at the Renmin University of China, told the Global Times today that the greatest concern with identifying online informers is that it will put them at risk from people seeking retribution.

“They are not supermen or superwomen who never die. They will be forced into silence,” he said.

Eric Chen, 26, a salesman from Hangzhou, told the Global Times that Zhejiang University, his alma mater, introduced a real-name-only system for its Internet bulletin board in 2005.

“Before then, it was alive with free speech,” he said.

“Although it’s better controlled now, ever since a student was told by school authorities that he might not be allowed to graduate because he broke a scandal involving a teacher, it’s been boring.”