Chinese netizens will soon be unable to comment anonymously and hide their real identity behind empty accounts on Chinese sites.
Chinese netizens will soon be unable to comment anonymously and hide their real identity behind empty accounts on Chinese sites.
Photo：Internet
According to a new regulation released by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) on Friday, Chinese news and social media websites and applications are required to undergo identity verification of users to determine account ownership.
In a separate but related statement, the CAC also added that this is to “thoroughly implement the spirit of the cyber security law”, and to “promote a healthy and orderly development of the service”.
The regulation will be implemented from Oct. 1 onwards.
Photo:mothership.sg
Photo:mothership.sgCultivating civilised online practice
According to the regulation, all forms of comments can only be made under verified accounts.
This includes “bullet screen” comments (danmu), a popular feature among young Chinese users where comments scroll across the screen while a video is playing.
However, although user accounts require identity verification with real names, users do not have to display their real names when commenting.
All comments are required to be filtered by service providers through a “real-time review system”.
User-grading system
The statement also included regulations on user account management.
Service providers were required to issue warnings, hide and delete comments, or terminate accounts of users who violate the regulation.
They were also required to establish a “user-grading system”, where service providers would have to evaluate user accounts’ actions according to the grading system.
If a user account is evaluated with low performance under the grading system, the account would be suspended by the service providers, and the user can no longer register for a new account.
