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China's New Wave of Internet Censorship: Name Verification for Online Commenting

thediplomat.com

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Re: China's New Wave of Internet Censorship: Name Verification for Online Commenting

#91

Post by sfifs »

1_2__4 wrote: post #78
paradite wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To create a facebook account, you need either mobile phone number or email. To have an email, you still need a mobile phone number to register for gmail (the most popular choice). To have a mobile phone number, you need your passport or ID. Yes, in some cases you can get phone numbers without passport, but then again you can also get IDs and fake passports easily in China if you want.

ID for a cell number is certainly not a requirement in the US. Or anywhere in Western Europe. Or Canada. Or Mexico. Or anywhere in South America. So where are you talking about that being a requirement ?

pretty much anywhere in Asia for instance.

Re: China's New Wave of Internet Censorship: Name Verification for Online Commenting

#92

Post by abpavel »

bitL wrote: post #13
jackgavigan wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Imagine, Facebook asking you to upload your passport before you do a live stream. It wouldn't surprise me if a Western government (probably the UK's) considers introducing legislation to require exactly this in the not-too-distant future, most likely under the guise of preventing the spread of extremist propaganda. If they do, companies like Facebook and YouTube will face a choice between acceding to the new regula…

If it comes to having the same legislation in the UK, it'd likely ban decentralized web as well, perhaps requiring submitting your ID upon connecting to Internet every single time.

you do have to provide your ID to connect to the Internet, except for the prepaid anonymous sim cards paid for in cash.

Re: China's New Wave of Internet Censorship: Name Verification for Online Commenting

#93

Post by paradite »

donatj wrote: post #76
darpa_escapee wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OTOH, Alibaba, wechat etc

Have you actually used any of these? Alibaba is worse than Craigslist. Leaders they are not,

On top of my head:

- Chat/Social Media: Wechat's P2P money transfer, cashless transaction

- Drone: DJI

- Phone: Xiaomi Mi Mix, One Plus series

- JS framework: Vue.js

Re: China's New Wave of Internet Censorship: Name Verification for Online Commenting

#94

Post by yorwba »

arthurfm wrote: post #75
neya wrote: post #5

There are a dozen popular live streaming apps in China where one can simply just stream what you're doing to everyone on the site and people can just watch them for hours. You can think of it like Instagram stories or Snapchat per se. Or even Facebook live. This isn't some western media propaganda. I tried one of them very recently (I don't want to give them any undeserved marketing), they allowed me to sign up and t…

> Imagine, Facebook asking you to upload your passport before you do a live stream. When I created an account with AirBnB I had to upload government-issued ID documents and a photo of myself [1]. Their Android app even asked me to scan the chip in my UK passport via NFC. [1] https://www.airbnb.co.uk/help/article/1237/how-does-providin...

This was probably necessary due to instances where someone rented an AirBnB apartment under a fake identity, and then proceeded to completely trash the apartment.

In cases like this, where anonymity allows users to cause serious damage without repercussions, I don't think identity requirements are problematic. However, extending this to harmless actions like commenting online is a completely different thing.

Re: China's New Wave of Internet Censorship: Name Verification for Online Commenting

#95

Post by EGreg »

I remember being freaked out when I read THE DIGITAL IMPRIMATUR, which was authored in the early 2000s. I thought it was already reality, but it was just describing what COULD happen with a determined censorship / police state that can use the power of regulations to make it happen.

So I wrote this: http://magarshak.com/blog/?p=114

I am going to post it on HN actually right now.

Re: China's New Wave of Internet Censorship: Name Verification for Online Commenting

#96

Post by sgift »

1_2__4 wrote: post #79
donatj wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I was once convinced that China was on the verge of becoming a new force in modern technology They have amazingly intelligent people and a wonderful hacker community, the problem is it stands entirely at odds with the government's "what's best for society" attitude. The problem most overtly controlling government's aren't willing to accept is that what's best for society this exact moment might not be what's best f…

You act as if the Chinese populace doesn't broadly suppprt their government, including these kinds of restrictions.

It's hard to know if they do - everyone who dares to state something else finds themselves in dire circumstances.

Re: China's New Wave of Internet Censorship: Name Verification for Online Commenting

#97

Post by alistproducer2 »

At least here in the states, social media + anonymity hasn't exactly been a boon for human progress. I will never support the laws being proposed in places like the u.k and China, but I like the fact that we are forced to grapple with these ethical issues when laws like this are proposed.

Humanity is mainlining an experimental drug in social media. What makes it insideous is that most don't realize it. Governments are grappling with how to insulate themselves from the threat this tech represents; when will regular people do the same?

Re: China's New Wave of Internet Censorship: Name Verification for Online Commenting

#98

Post by aw3c2 »

yorwba wrote: post #94
arthurfm wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Imagine, Facebook asking you to upload your passport before you do a live stream. When I created an account with AirBnB I had to upload government-issued ID documents and a photo of myself [1]. Their Android app even asked me to scan the chip in my UK passport via NFC. [1] https://www.airbnb.co.uk/help/article/1237/how-does-providin...

This was probably necessary due to instances where someone rented an AirBnB apartment under a fake identity, and then proceeded to completely trash the apartment. In cases like this, where anonymity allows users to cause serious damage without repercussions, I don't think identity requirements are problematic. However, extending this to harmless actions like commenting online is a completely different thing.

People can use commenting to call for genocide or push people into suicide, they can use communication to plot terrorist attacks, etc.

The only difference is that it is not physical damage.

I support anonymity, I hated what Airbnb made me do in terms of insecure exposing of my identify to them (and then had I use an empty gmail account to verify in the end).

Re: China's New Wave of Internet Censorship: Name Verification for Online Commenting

#99

Post by gruez »

sfifs wrote: post #90
no1youknowz wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> To have a mobile phone number, you need your passport or ID. Not in the UK you don't. I can order a bunch of free sims with fake names and addresses and get them. I've got about 20 from EE, gifgaff, Vodafone, NanoSim, O2, etc. So by your logic. I can create fake facebook and email from a free SIM of a number that has no connection to me. Every system has a weakspot. You just need to know how to exploit it.

except that your mobile provider can probably localize you to within tens if meters. If you use modern tech, there's no real anonymity - just degrees of difficulty.

obviously the idea is to dispose of the sim after you've used it to create the account.

Re: China's New Wave of Internet Censorship: Name Verification for Online Commenting

#100

Post by gruez »

paradite wrote: post #93
donatj wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you actually used any of these? Alibaba is worse than Craigslist. Leaders they are not,

On top of my head: - Chat/Social Media: Wechat's P2P money transfer, cashless transaction - Drone: DJI - Phone: Xiaomi Mi Mix, One Plus series - JS framework: Vue.js

> Chat/Social Media: Wechat's P2P money transfer, cashless transaction

helps when there are no foreign competitors (thanks, GFW!), and credit/debit card infrastructure is underdeveloped

> Phone: Xiaomi Mi Mix, One Plus series

Both of which are barely profitable or operating at a loss

>JS framework: Vue.js

MVVC with html bindings has been around for years now

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