Marbridge Daily

Chinese Websites Concerned about Real-Name System

China Youth Daily, 1/20/12

At the first annual Internet Communities Summit in Sanya, hosted by People's Daily Online and Tianya, representatives of some of China's leading online communities and portals expressed concern that conditions were not yet ripe for a full-scale nationwide introduction of real-name registration policies.

Wang Jiang, Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) deputy chief editor, said that at present real-name registration exists more as a concept than as an accomplished reality. Wang noted the difficulties involved in tying internet users' actual identities to the national ID numbers used for registration, considering the ease with which users could register accounts using others' ID information -- and the potential exploitation of ID data by hackers. Wang also cited the incompleteness of legal protection for online real-name registration as a concern.

Li Fang, standing deputy chief editor of Tencent (0700.HK), predicted that the number of microblog users would increase by up to 80% in 2012, creating an ever greater need for data security. While all major portals have online security teams numbering in the hundreds of employees, Li said, it remains impossible to guarantee user data security -- meaning that real-name registration will require great caution on the part of operators.

Zhao Feng, director of online forum site Xici.net, said that websites were limited in their ability to address internet security issues through technology, and that it would remain important to increase user awareness of security and to ensure legislative provisions for data security.

Chen Yong, deputy chief editor of Tianya, said that a roadmap for nationwide implementation of real-name registration policies would be necessary. Real-name registration remains under exploration, Chen said, and is only feasible at present for backend registration of a small number of users, to be registered in stages. In the case of Tianya's forums, for instance, moderators and opinion leaders have had their identities verified by the site, while for ordinary users only methods generally considered more secure, such as mobile phone registration, are feasible. To date, several million Tianya users have opted for mobile phone verification.

Website operators are businesspeople first, Chen said, and have their own long-term development to consider. A full-scale implementation of real-name registration, with a complicated verification workflow, could cause sites to lose large numbers of potential users -- requiring sites to grant special privileges or incentives to users who opt for verification, which -- when combined with a sizable investment in security systems -- would increase the cost to operators of implementing real-name registration.

Sohu (Nasdaq: SOHU) deputy chief editor Fang Gang was relatively sanguine regarding implementing back-end real-name registration for internet communities. Fang cited the relative ease of implementation and the potential of a real-name registration system to make users "more responsible for their speech" as positives, but noted that users would also have to see personal benefits, such as copyright protection for their online comments.

Hu Yong, an associate professor at the Peking University School of Journalism and Communications, said that Chinese society had entered a phase in which different social strata could vie for primacy using emerging technologies -- meaning that the government would be required to offer clear communications and beneficial services in addressing the "online discourse crisis" in order to create a more responsible internet user base.

Zou Ming, VP of Phoenix New Media's internet portal iFeng, said that Chinese internet users had seen an unprecedented increase in awareness and sophistication over the last decade, and that improvements to the online environment would essentially be contingent upon social progress.

Sanya municipal deputy director of propaganda Jian Qiuxiong said that real-name registration would be a means of imposing online order and making internet users responsible for their online comments, and would have little actual effect on governmental efforts to oversee and direct public discourse. At present, many internet users responding to real-name registration are signing their own names and leaving their phone numbers. The government should respect online public opinion, Jian said, and should shift its efforts from eliminating online discourse to addressing real-world problems.

Keywords: Zhao Feng Hu Yong Jian Qiuxiong Chen Yong Fang Gang Internet Tianya Xici Tencent iFeng Phoenix New Media Sina Sohu 0700.HK Wang Jiang Zou Ming real name system Fang Li microblogging