Will the real Web user please stand up?

• Source: The Global Times
• [21:47 May 21 2009]
• Comments

By Li Xiaoshu

Illustration: Li Xiaoyi

A pilot regulation introduced at the start of the month in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, which requires people to use their real names on Internet bulletin boards, chat rooms and personal blog pages, has been largely ignored, the Global Times has discovered.

“We had no idea how to implement the regulation,” a woman surnamed Zhou, head of the marketing and branding department of the community website 19lou.com, said.

“We’re collecting feedback from our users and will forward it to the authorities.”

A man surnamed Liu from the forum management department of Zhejiang Online told the Global Times he “knew the regulation had been approved and had sparked controversy,” but had yet to receive any official notice of it.

“I just registered at Hangzhou.com using a false name and I was able to post about 10 seconds later,” Hangzhou resident Xu Jin, 24, told the Global Times yesterday.

Throughout the regulation’s lifespan – it was tabled for public opinion in July, approved by the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Hangzhou in April and implemented on May 1 – officials, Internet service providers, experts and Web users have continuously questioned its feasibility.

“Online identification should be promoted, but not in a compulsory way,” the head of the Zhejiang publicity office was quoted as saying by the Beijing Times Tuesday.