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The government said the proposal would protect online privacy. Critics have said it could simply concentrate the government even more on the Internet.
By Meaghan Tobin and John Liu
Meaghan Tobin reported from Taipei, Taiwan and John Liu from Seoul.
It’s difficult to stay anonymous online in China. Websites and apps will need to identify users with their phone numbers, which are connected to private identity numbers assigned to all adults.
Things may now get more complicated following a proposal from China’s internet regulators: the government wants to take over the work of fact-checking companies and give other people a unique ID to use on the internet.
The Ministry of Public Security and the Cyberspace Administration of China say the proposal aims to protect privacy and prevent online fraud.
A national web identity would reduce “the exaggerated collection and retention of citizens’ non-public data through web platforms under the guise of implementing registration under their genuine name,” the regulators said.
The use of the app-based identification formula would be voluntary, according to the proposal, which is open for public comment until the end of August.
For years, the Chinese government has exercised strict control over data and closely monitored people’s online habits. In recent years, China’s largest social media platforms, such as microblogging site Weibo, lifestyle app Xiaohongshu and short video app Douyin, have started showing users’ locations in their posts.
But until now, this has been fragmented and censors have to track other people on other online platforms. A national identity on the Internet could simply centralize it.
“With this web ID, your every move online, your every virtual trace, will be monitored through regulators,” said Rose Luqiu, assistant professor of journalism at Hong Kong Baptist University. “It will definitely have an effect on people’s behavior. “
On Weibo, the proposal has been a trending topic since it was posted on Friday. Many comments echoed regulators’ considerations that too many other apps had access to their non-public information.
Dr. Luqiu said that many influencers had embraced the concept that online platforms profited from people’s non-public data and could not protect their privacy.
Some Chinese jurists have said that a national identity formula risks giving the government too much leverage to monitor what other people do online.
The coverage of non-public data is just a pretext to make the social control regime regular, Lao Dongyan, a law professor at Tsinghua University, warned in a message she said has since been deleted. Lao compares the formula to that of the Chinese government’s enforcement of the fitness code that tracked people’s movements during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Another law professor, Shen Kui of Peking University, said in a commentary posted online that a centralized identity on the Internet would make other people afraid to use the Internet.
“The dangers and harms of a unified ‘Internet ID’ and ‘Internet license’ are immense,” he wrote.
Meaghan Tobin covers economic and generation issues in Asia, with a focus on China, and is based in Taipei. Learn more about Meaghan Tobin
John Liu covers China and generation for The Times, focusing primarily on the interplay between politics and generation chains. He is in Seoul. Learn more about John Liu
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