U.S.-China Surveillance

A recent op-ed in People’s Daily Online defends new plans to register the real names of bloggers in the face of public criticisms:

Many netizens are worried that this will restrict freedom of speech and harm individual privacy. But insiders pointed out that such worries stem from misinterpretation of the system.

The entire op-ed is well worth a read, as many justifications offered for the system would not be out of place in a U.S. Justice Department memo calling for a new round of Internet restrictions. The piece also mentions concern over dynamically-assigned IP addresses, and the anonymity it affords, as a facilitator of online crime.

At present some netizens are fond of the cyber world just because they find a freedom of expression without restrictions or responsibilities. That is why they do not accept the real-name system. Some just want a personal space but have no intention of harming others, so there is no need to register their real names. But more bloggers want public attention, and more want to increase their hits and social influence. Thus the real-name system may be the self-disciplined choice for some netizens to prevent them from damaging their own images and gambling with their most precious resource.