News Web sites in China have received some secret Government orders asking them to ensure that new users must log on using their real identities to post comments on the sites. Earlier, users were allowed to offer comments on such news sites in an anonymous manner, and generally without registration on these sites. However, these new orders appear to be not applicable to the formerly registered users of the websites, and also to blog hosts, forums or government news sites like People’s Daily or Xinhua.
The New York Times reports that due to the above change in policy in this regard, news sites such as Sina, Netease, Sohu and others have started asking their unregistered users to sign in under their real names and identification numbers.
It is a common knowledge that China does not allow free speech. Several regulations already exist to directly or indirectly control the public opinion. Many restrictions have been put in place by China Government to curtail the free flow of Internet stuff. China has been seriously considering introduction of a detailed real-name system for the Internet users. Efforts have been made to restrict free flow of information to the ever-growing number of Internet users in China who now constitute the largest number of Internet users from a country with about 340 million people actually using Internet in China. The stated objective of such restrictions is to enforce mandatory controls to help subdue inflammatory attacks, misinformation and other illegal activity deemed to endanger social order. However, the fact remains that it is more with the intention of curbing the basic rights of its citizens to maintain the strict Government control over them; and, perhaps the authorities in China know very well the real power of Internet in shaping public opinion.
The main strength of Internet has been protection of privacy and anonymity of the users. It allows them to freely express their views and opinions. Of course, it is equally true that anonymity on Internet has also led to several fraudulent activities pervading all through the web. There is no dearth of unscrupulous elements who want to exploit the anonymity offered by the Internet for their wrongful purposes. It has always been a point of debate whether anonymity is good for the society or is harmful to its interests. The Internet which was supposed to help us with free flow of information, has also been the reason for nefarious activities of some people who use anonymous browsing as a protective umbrella. This is the cause for spread for many viruses, worms, spyware, economic frauds, etc.
Whether or not one agrees with the latest China directives to curtail anonymity on the Internet, the fact remains that even elsewhere the web anonymity has been severely curtailed already, albeit indirectly. Look at the fact that your IP address is known to a website that you visit. IP address can easily tell your location (for example, see my previous article, How to find out IP address and location of email sender). Moreover, location-aware browsing is increasing by the day in its use. Your location can technically be ascertained by the websites automatically up to the accuracy of a few meters for many regions of the world. Gone are the days when only your city could be identified. Furthermore, as and when GPS-enabled laptops become the rule, it would be technically possible for websites visited by you to easily pinpoint your location precisely within a few meters. See my earlier articles, Location-aware browsing in Firefox and Twitter to add your geo-location to your tweets, for some insights on these issues. To be fair, let me also point out that at present the location-aware browsing would only be with your consent and with the stated objective of making your browsing experience richer by offering you customized web pages depending upon your location. However, the road to curtail the privacy would always begin by such indirect methods. After all, a time may come when intrusions on privacy could become routine in the name of rich browsing experience. You’ll get addicted and used to the customized web pages offering you all relevant material and subsequently you’ll find non-customized browsing to be so irrelevant and so boring that you won’t perhaps have a choice but to consent to your location being known to the websites visited by you through their accurate devices.
Therefore, even outside China, the technology will, sooner rather than later, take away a major part of your anonymity on the web. Of course, in liberal countries, you won’t find such crude attempts to curb your basic rights of free speech and expression, as is happening in China.
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