China's Internet Users Can't be Anonymous Under New Law

A gold-plated Infiniti luxury sports car outside a jewelry store in Nanjing, in East China’s Jiangsu Province, March 31, 2011. Corrupt officialsoften use their stolen money on extravagant luxury items like this. Now citizens will have more trouble exposing corruption due to new internet restrictions requiring using real names instead of pseudonyms. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)

Behind the so-called “Great Firewall” in China, users may no longer go by pseudonyms—a staple of the internet and especially important for users in countries like China.

Details of the law aren’t sketched out yet, but the limits may potentially extend to registering for internet service at home as well as signing up for temporary internet access at cafes.

The internet on China has remained the main stomping grounds for activists and citizens seeking to expose the wrong deeds of officials and others in the current morally corrupt atmosphere in China under the communist regime.

There are fears that if the new law could hinder those looking to expose such crimes as the son of an official refusing to surrender to police after killing someone while driving drunk.

When crowds stopped his car, he reportedly shouted “Sue me if you dare, my father is Li Gang,” according to The Epoch Times.

Li Fei, of the National People’s Congress Legislative Affairs Committee, told members in a meeting that there is “difficulty in getting evidence and punishing the right person” in regards to online crimes.

“It’s necessary to strengthen regulation of the identity of internet users,” he added, according to the South China Morning Post.

However, new rules could open up the field to unplanned repercussions, such as if someone logged onto someone else’s account and committed so-called crimes.

“If you register with your real name and someone steals your account and spreads a rumour in your name, undeserved punishment could happen”, a policeman wrote on his microblog, according to SCMP.

State media portrayed the law in a different way. The following is an excerpt from a People’s Daily editorial.

“The law should escort the development of the internet to protect people’s interest. Only that way can our internet be healthier, more cultured and safer.”

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