Chinese Officials Pursue Real-Name Registration
Southern Daily, 5/04/10
At the 15th lecture of the 11th National People's Congress held by the Standing Committee on April 29, speaker Wang Chen, deputy director of the Publicity Department of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and director of the State Council Information Office, revealed that major news and commercial websites had seen success in removing anonymous commenting functionality, and that work is underway on requiring users of electronic bulletin board services to authenticate their identities.
Wang explained the responsibilities of Chinese governmental authorities for regulating the internet: the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) is responsible for industry development and management; the Ministry of Public Security is responsible for security oversight and punishment of violations; external propaganda departments are responsible for taking the lead in coordinating efforts; and the Ministry of Culture, the State Administration of Radio Film and Television (SARFT), the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP), the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Commerce all participate in information content regulation.
Wang said that China has made initial efforts to establish an internet infrastructure management system. One aspect of this is the regulation of domain names, IP addresses, and the registration and management of internet access services. Another is the regulation on establishment of internet information services. Still another is the active exploration of internet real-name systems.
Last July, the Hong Kong-based Ta Kung Pao reported that the State Council Information Office had issued a notice calling upon all news sites to disable anonymous commenting and posting functionality, and implement a real-name registration system under which netizens would be required to enter personal data, including their real names and identification numbers, when registering, and would be able to post and comment only after verification.
The head of one portal's news comment moderation team said that the ID number requirement was only a rumor, and that the notice sent out last year only required users to log in before posting.
Wang also urged that a "Regulations for Mobile Media Service Management" be introduced as soon as possible, in order to provide a legal basis for mobile media management and the introduction of a real-name registration system.
Keywords: wireless Internet regulation MIIT Ministry of Commerce Ministry of Culture Ministry of Education Ministry of Public Security SARFT State Council Information Office GAPP Publicity Department real name system
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