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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

#111

Post by avaika »

socratewasright wrote: post #23

It's not that bad I believe. With the way PR companies and political parties are using astroturfing/bots to influence public opinion, asking for identification is one way of making sure the person participating in an online discussion is real. It also safeguards against online foreign influence. Additionally, I think anonymity tends to bring the worst in us. Perhaps it is because we feel less pressured by social norm…

From the other side once you share your data, you lose control over it. Your identity might be stolen / sold / used for something illegal by whoever has the access to it. Nobody is gonna solve this problem.

Moreover in a lot of countries nobody will protect you once prosecutor has enough "clues" to put you in jail for something you didn't commit. Just look at the prosecution process of mr Bogatov for hosting Tor exit node [1]. It's already happening.

Or imagine the possibilities for government to track down the opposition. Well in some countries government already puts in jail opposition based on internet activities.

So even in case anonymity might make people to be a bit overly aggressive online, that's the price I'm happy to pay for my own safety and freedom. Otherwise I would prefer to stay passive network participant or even be offline.

[1]: https://blog.torproject.org/blog/statement-regarding-dmitry-...

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

#112

Post by rkido »

donatj wrote: post #53
chairmanwow wrote: post #45

I'm frightened by how a seemingly pragmatic government has been able to spiral into dogmatic, protectionists policies so rapidly. I suppose that I mistook the recent decades of economic development as evidence of true ideological reform taking place. Now I feel naive for expecting more from the government that imprisoned the father of their ubiquitous high speed rail system. The Eastern desire to require "harmonious…

> 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…

Um, you seem to be unaware of Tencent and Alibaba, both vast enterprises. Tencent owns League of Legends, the biggest multiplayer game in the world, as well as WeChat, which is comparable to WhatsApp in number of users. WeChat is revered by tech leaders in the West, it basically blows everything else out of the water in terms of features and robustness.

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

#114

Post by rkido »

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,

Try using WeChat every day for a few months and then tell me again they're not leading the pack. I don't even use it in China (where it's power is significantly higher than everywhere else), yet even ignoring features that only work in China, it is by far the most powerful messaging client currently available.

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

#115

Post by Zak »

jackgavigan wrote: post #7
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. 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…

Germany has recently started requiring identity verification of this sort to obtain prepaid phone service. I was shocked to learn that, and find it frighteningly close to what China is doing.

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

#116

Post by Larrikin »

the_mitsuhiko wrote: post #28
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…

> Only the Chinese government can get away with something unbelievable like these regulations Many countries do. To watch certain youtube videos in south korea you need to provide your social security number or something like that.

Which YouTube videos?

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

#117

Post by tradersam »

golergka wrote: post #74
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…

In Russia, when you open Pornhub, it asks to verify your age with Voktakte (popular social network) account. Your can only register there with a working mobile number. And you can only buy a sim card with your passport. So, essentially, you can't even watch porn without an id now.

So... don't go to PornHub. I think for the #1 thing on the web you'd be able to find an alternative.

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

#118

Post by nwjtkjn »

notyourwork wrote: post #72
quicklime wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/1733224?hl=en a mobile phone number is optional when signing up for Gmail.

I'm not sure I agree with that answer. I just tried signing up to test this and after submitting was asked for a phone number to verify. The first form didn't require a phone but after that it redirected to a page with a link to https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/114129?hl=en&ctx=... that referencing GSuite verification.

I feel like this is a very recent change; I've definitely created "burner" gmail accounts in the past and I don't remember providing my cell phone number.

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

#119

Post by pas »

Zak wrote: post #115
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…

Germany has recently started requiring identity verification of this sort to obtain prepaid phone service. I was shocked to learn that, and find it frighteningly close to what China is doing.

The perps in the Paris attacks used Hungarian prepaid SIM cards. Of course the national defense agencies were so dumb they haven't noticed that a few guys registered hudreds of thoudands of accounts.

So making phones more traceable doesn't really work against terrorists, when there are so many incompetent people watching us :(

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

#120

Post by grzm »

pas wrote: post #119
Zak wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Germany has recently started requiring identity verification of this sort to obtain prepaid phone service. I was shocked to learn that, and find it frighteningly close to what China is doing.

The perps in the Paris attacks used Hungarian prepaid SIM cards. Of course the national defense agencies were so dumb they haven't noticed that a few guys registered hudreds of thoudands of accounts. So making phones more traceable doesn't really work against terrorists, when there are so many incompetent people watching us :(

> Of course the national defense agencies were so dumb they haven't noticed that a few guys registered hudreds of thoudands of accounts.

Would you elaborate more on the background of this? Were the SIM cards sold and registered with a private company? I would suspect it is (or they were, if more than one). Which national defense agencies are you referring to? Did the national defense agencies search these records? Do you assume the agencies have access to this information by default? If it's through a private company, should the agencies have access by default? Do you think the private companies should have contacted the agencies if they didn't have access?

There are answers to these questions, some of them factual, some of them ethical or legal, and up for debate. In only a few situations I think it would be fair to call the agencies "so dumb". What leads you to use those words?

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