Columnist fears overreaction by local management
Print Edition
CHINA said yesterday it will force real-name registration of instant message tools and allow only media outlets and news portals with Internet news distribution licenses to post or reprint current affairs news stories on social networking services, such as the popular WeChat, in its latest effort to “clean up cyberspace.”
Current affairs stories means those on political, economic, military and foreign affairs as well as commentary pieces and features.
“A few people are using the platforms to disseminate information related to terrorism, violence and pornography as well as slander and rumors,” said Jiang Jun, a spokesman for the State Internet Information Office. “Cyberspace cannot become a space full of disorder and hostility.”
Xu Feng, head of mobile internet management at the office, said: “Some people are damaging other people’s rights and interests and public security in the name of freedom of speech.
“The regulation will promote the quality of instant messaging services to ensure that citizens enjoy the convenience of such services. This is the true freedom of speech.”
The new rule follows a series of efforts by the government to clean up cyberspace and maintain Internet order as social media platforms gain popularity in China.
Similar regulations were passed for China’s microblogging service Sina Weibo in 2012.
The new regulation requires users of instant messaging services to use real names when registering in an effort to hold users responsible for content.
It aims at promoting the healthy development of the fast-growing instant messaging sector and safeguarding national security and public interests, the office said.
Targeting China’s 5.8 million public accounts on subscription-based mobile apps such as WeChat, it will take immediate effect.
All other public accounts on WeChat, including those operated by individual or self-employed columnists, will have to register and be subject to news management rules or face the suspension or deletion of their accounts, according to the regulation.
“It means strict management for individual self-employed content providers on WeChat,” said Li Xinran, an analyst with Internet consultancy Analysys International.
Xu Danei, a columnist with FTChinese.com and a current affairs writer who has a WeChat public account, said the new rule wasn’t a huge change but there were fears local authorities would overreact as a result of the regulation.
Users must also sign an agreement with the service provider, promising “to comply with the law, the socialist system, the national interest, citizens’ legal rights, public order, social moral customs, and authenticity of information.”
Tencent, which operates WeChat, already asks each public account user to upload a photo of themselves with their identification cards as proof, so the new regulation won’t affect existing users.
The company says it has been working hard to detect online rumors and has dedicated resources to remove them.
Earlier this year, it introduced rules to prevent WeChat account users from sending advertising links and it has deleted nearly 30,000 accounts involved in fake goods.
It removes an average of 10 million spam links each day, the company said.
WeChat had 393 million active users in the second quarter, according to domestic Internet consultancy Analysys International. Other mobile instant messaging services include China Mobile’s Fetion and Tencent’s mobile QQ.
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