China’s government to force gamers and bloggers to use their real names and ID numbers

In their never ending question to regulate and control the Internet, the Chinese government has adopted a policy that requires players of online games and bloggers (including those who only post blog comments) to register using their state-issued identification cards.

Chinese leaders recently announced a broad push to “purify” the internet of socially and politically suspect activity, and have been keen to push users to use their true identities online. Beijing is also looking at ways of implementing a “real name” system for bloggers to curb “irresponsible” commentary and intellectual property abuse.

State media this year quoted Hu Qiheng of the China Internet Association as saying that bloggers’ real names would be kept private “as long as they do no harm to the public interest”. Read the whole Financial Times article.

“As long as they do no harm to public interest”? Ha! Considering Chinese law allows the government to retroactively declare something harmful to the public interest, not to mention a state secret, I’d say this ‘private’ information is about as private as Paris Hilton’s sex videos.

The CCP’s consolidation of the Internet is mindblowing and incredibly disheartening. This piece of sad news is just another example of what Sharon Hom, the executive director of Human Rights in China, once wrote:

The Internet and other technologies have potential to serve as a democratizing force–providing more access to information, building a virtual space for community gathering and grassroots development–but these sophisticated technologies can also be manipulated into tools for repression, propaganda and enforcing authoritarian control.

I wonder if we can expect to see CCP cyberpolice role-playing as little eavesdropping orcs.