MCLC: new rules on social networking sites

Denton, Kirk denton.2 at osu.edu
Sat Dec 17 11:12:14 EST 2011


MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: new rules on social networking sites
***********************************************************

Source: NYT 
(12/16/11):http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/17/world/asia/beijing-imposes-new
-rules-on-social-networking-sites.html

Beijing Imposes New Rules on Social Networking Sites
By EDWARD WONG

BEIJING ‹ Officials announced new rules on Friday aimed at controlling the
way Chinese Internet users post messages on social networking sites that
have posed challenges to the Chinese Communist Party¹s propaganda
machinery.

For many users, the most striking of the new rules requires people using
the sites, called microblogs, or weibo in Chinese, to register with their
real names and biographical information
<http://cmp.hku.hk/2011/12/16/17607/>. They will still be able to post
under aliases, according to a report by Xinhua, the state news agency.

Some analysts say the real-name registration could dampen some of the
freewheeling conversations that take place online, and that sometimes
result in a large number of users criticizing officials and government
policy.

The rule on real-name registration had been expected for several months
now by industry watchers, and Internet companies in China had already
experimented in 2009 with some forms of this. It was the ninth of 17 new
microblog regulations issued on Friday by Beijing government officials,
who have been charged by central authorities with reining in the way
microblogs are used.

The regulations also include a licensing requirement for companies that
want to host microblogs and prohibitions on content, including posts aimed
at ³spreading rumors, disturbing social order or undermining social
stability.² But officials have long put pressure on microblog companies to
self-censor, and the lists of limits on content are more an articulation
of the boundaries already in place.

The regulation announced by the Beijing officials applies only to
companies based in the capital, where several of the largest microblog
platforms, including Sina and Sohu, are located.

One large rival, Tencent, is based in Shenzhen, a special economic zone in
the south, and an editor there said Friday that the authorities had yet to
issue any new regulations that would affect the company. But analysts
expect that that city and others across China will soon put in place rules
similar to the ones announced by Beijing.

³It¹s just a further sign of the way things are going,² said Bill Bishop,
an analyst and businessman based in Beijing who writes about the Internet
industry on a blog, Digicha <http://digicha.com/>. Some Internet users, he
added, may now ask themselves, ³ŒWhy bother to say something? You never
know.¹ ²

There were many comments of outrage on Friday from those posting on
microblogs. ³Society is going backwards,² wrote one user by the name of
Cheng Yang. ³Where is China¹s path?²

Many prominent commentators and writers with influence over public opinion
already post under their real names. For example, Pan Shiyi, a wealthy
real estate developer who posts regularly, has more than seven million
followers. He recently used his platform to advocate stricter air
pollution reports from the Beijing government.

³In fact, serious weibo users have already opted to use their real names
out of their own interests,² said another editor at Tencent who spoke on
the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of talking about
government policy.

Internet companies hosting microblogs have been told to comply with the
new rules within three months. Sina and Tencent have more than 200 million
registered users each; it is unclear how the companies will go about
ensuring that each user has registered with real data.

But Mr. Bishop said the technology was already in place and had been used
by one large Internet company, Baidu, when it ran its own version of a
microblog, which no longer exists. The registration information that users
enter online can be matched up against a police database, he said.

Leaders here have long discussed how to better control the Chinese
Internet, which has about 485 million users, the most of any country. Most
vexing for officials has been the speed with which information can spread
on microblogs. This year, several episodes highlighted the reach of
microblogs, including posts that ignited mass anger over both the Wenzhou
high-speed train crash and the hit-and-run death of a 2-year-old toddler,
Yueyue.

China has for years blocked Twitter and Facebook, and officials here
carefully monitored the rebellions this year in the Middle East to see how
they were organized and what role social networking sites played.

But Chinese officials also see the microblogs as useful. The sites allow
people to vent anger, and officials can track posts to see the direction
of public opinion. More and more officials are also being encouraged to
use microblogs for propaganda and to mold discussions. Talk within the
party about controlling the Internet accelerated after a policy meeting of
the party¹s Central Committee in October that focused on culture and
ideology.

In the announcement Friday, Beijing officials said microblogs should
³actively spread the core values of the socialist system, disseminate
socialist advanced culture and build a socialist harmonious society.²

Jonathan Ansfield contributed reporting from Beijing, and Shuo Feng
contributed research.






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