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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 be more complicated following a proposal from China’s Internet regulators: The government wants to take over the work of verification 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 identity formula through apps would be voluntary, according to the proposal, open for public comment until the end of August.
For years, the Chinese government has exercised strict control over data and largely monitors people’s internet habits. In recent years, China’s largest social media platforms, such as microblogging site Weibo, lifestyle app Xiaohongshu, and short video app Douyin, have begun to display users’ places in their posts.
But until now, this has been fragmented, with censors having to limit themselves to other people on other online platforms. A national identity on the Internet can simply centralize it.
“With this web ID, each and every one of your online movements, all your virtual traces, will be monitored through regulators,” said Rose Luqiu, an 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 trending since its publication on Friday. Many comments echoed regulators’ considerations that too many other apps had access to their non-public information.
Dr Luqiu said many influencers had adopted the concept that online platforms profited from people’s non-public data and were unable to protect their privacy.
Some Chinese lawyers have said that a national identity formula on the Internet 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 comment 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. More about John Liu
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