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China Censorship Government Social Networks The Internet

China Orders Internet Comments Linked To Real Identities (engadget.com) 251

A (truly) anonymous Slashdot reader quotes Engadget: China isn't slowing down in its bid to silence online political opposition. As of October 1st, the country will require that tech firms hold on to records of the real identities of everyone posting comments on internet message boards. This is to discourage "false rumors, filthy language and illegal messages," according to the government. Of course, it's that last part that Chinese officials are really interested in -- they know you're less likely to challenge the political order if investigators can easily track you down.

The timing of this identity requirement, the VPN restriction and other crackdowns (such as an investigation into internet giants for allowing material that "harms the social order") isn't coincidental. China's ruling party has its next national congress later in 2017, and it has a habit of ramping up censorship around these gatherings to discourage criticism of party policies.

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China Orders Internet Comments Linked To Real Identities

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  • Fuck China. (Score:4, Informative)

    by log0n ( 18224 ) on Sunday August 27, 2017 @08:44PM (#55094977)

    Fuck China.

    • Re:Fuck China. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by log0n ( 18224 ) on Sunday August 27, 2017 @08:45PM (#55094981)

      Or rather, fuck the Chinese government. I'm sure the people are swell.

      • by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 27, 2017 @09:16PM (#55095069)

        You've never been to China, have you?

      • Or rather, fuck the Chinese government. I'm sure the people are swell.

        The rank-and-file average Chinese citizen is probably 'swell', as you say, for various values of the word; chances are they're like any other average person in any other country on the planet: they just want to live their lives, raise their families, and enjoy some degree of happiness day-to-day, and otherwise not be made miserable by their own government. The sad reality for the average Chinese citizen is that things in their country will likely get far worse before they get better, because as the Chinese

    • Re:Fuck China. (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 27, 2017 @08:54PM (#55095007)

      Oh sweet summer child, you don't think it'll be everywhere soon? The Wild West is ending, the internet is for govt and big business.

    • lol...agreed. fuck china and india.
  • by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Sunday August 27, 2017 @09:16PM (#55095071)
    any day now. Yup. Any day now. Right after we call out Saudi Arabia for it's civil rights abuses and treatment of women. In other news, the new iPhone 8 looks pretty sweet.
    • by swell ( 195815 )

      And let's not forget our friends running Israel who are quietly committing genocide while the US media looks elsewhere. But yeah, that iPhone!

      Posting anon due to residing in USA, land of the free (so long as we keep our mouth shut).

      • by swell ( 195815 )

        oops
        If you never hear from me again, you'll know what happened.

      • by Whibla ( 210729 )

        Completely off topic but, since you brought it up:

        Here's [tabletmag.com] a rather interesting take on the media portrayal of the Israeli / Palestinian situation.

        TL:DR There are terrible things happening all over the world, some of them are seriously over-reported, some you could be excused for missing completely due to the fact the media (being edited for political reasons) 'ignores' them. Israel falls firmly into the first category, but probably isn't that 'important' in the overall scheme of 'history'.

      • You're free to do whatever ... we tell you.

      • And let's not forget our friends running Israel who are quietly committing genocide while the US media looks elsewhere.

        Let's not forget, either, that we are funding it.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    On-line censorship in the U.S. is going in a similar direction though the methods being used are a bit different.

    In the U.S.:

    * Most visit a relatively limited number of sites controlled by large corporations that collect and aggregate data. One's identity is far from private.

    * Many read much of the news from social media sites, in particular, Facebook. News aggregators, in particular, Google News tend to show news from a relatively few sources, such as NY Times, Washington Post, and CNN. Bias is very eviden

  • by Marlin Schwanke ( 3574769 ) on Sunday August 27, 2017 @09:59PM (#55095147)
    You know it is a whole lot more likely that we get to where the chinese, and many other countries, are through the back door, of lawsuits, liability judgements and insurance companies. Western societies are often more constrained by such than by actual law and government regulation.
    • by swb ( 14022 )

      It seems inevitable. The nexus of business, government, national security and social stability all seem to make China seem like an innovator, not a regressive authoritarian.

      I guess its just a question as to whether China can make their society seem consumer/individual friendly enough that nobody really cares about the authoritarianism, and whether the US can make their authoritarianism consumer/individual friendly enough that nobody notices.

      It's like the last great frontier of innovation is how you impleme

  • by cyn1c77 ( 928549 ) on Monday August 28, 2017 @01:41AM (#55095539)

    Trump wants to know who is talking about him!

  • With Identities being required on China tech firms. Now all we need is a website breach on those tech firms to get BEELLIONS of FREE real identities for SELL!

    There's a reason why some data are better not kept.

  • Every country deserves the government it has

The computer is to the information industry roughly what the central power station is to the electrical industry. -- Peter Drucker

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