Global Voices Online

Real name registration has been hot topic for Chinese bloggers since most of BBS owned by major colleges were closed down or restricted access by government in March. People generally thought it was bloggers who should register themselves first if regualtions requiring every internet user’s real identity take effects. But such guesses prove to be wrong now.

Yesterday according to an announcement from QQ.com, largest Instant Messenger services provider with its primary product named QQ, it will required the administrator and creator of QQ group, a multi-users chat device based on the IM software, to give in their real personal information. Such rules were under the request from ShenZhen Administration of Public Security. Here is the authorizing document. The QQ group is more like a mini BBS and only users with a membership in that group can type their message to other users of the group.

Chinese Bloggers are reacting quickly to the event. WangYi, an IT journalist said the total amount of groups is too much to collect and calculate one by one and the workload must be unimaginable. He himself had 8 QQ accounts and he set up 4 groups for each account, so it would be a real headache for him to register them all.

DingYong has raised the legal question of such rules. He pointed out that although the QQ Company was located in ShenZhen but its user came from all over the country and requiring their information like ID card seems beyond the jurisdiction of ShenZhen government. It should be noted that the two above-mentioned bloggers are using their real name willingly.

The ultimate outcome of such rules is still unclear but we can foresee a more rigid control over internet implemented by Chinese government coming up. We will keep an eye on the event.