China removes anonymity of bloggers' accounts with more than 500,000 followers

[bnew]

China removes anonymity of bloggers' accounts with more than 500,000 followers

China's most popular social media platforms on Tuesday announced that "self-media" accounts with more than 500,000 followers will be asked to display real-name information, a controversial measure that has prompted concerns over doxxing and privacy among some users. "Self-media" includes news...

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China removes anonymity of bloggers' accounts with more than 500,000 followers​

October 31, 2023 at 8:22 AM

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's most popular social media platforms on Tuesday announced that "self-media" accounts with more than 500,000 followers will be asked to display real-name information, a controversial measure that has prompted concerns over doxxing and privacy among some users.

"Self-media" includes news and information not necessarily approved by the government, a genre of online content regulators have cracked down on in recent years to "purify" China's cyberspace.

Doxxing is the public release of sensitive information identifying an individual or organisation, like a home address or phone number.

Messaging and payment app WeChat, microblogging platform Weibo, Douyin, China's version of Tik Tok, search engine giant Baidu, social e-commerce app Xiaohongshu, video sharing website Bilibili, among others, published separate statements on Tuesday.

Rumours of the new policy had prompted lively debate among users.

Some, like former state media editor Hu Xijin, have defended the measure as necessary in order to force influential accounts to use more responsible speech.


Others, however, have expressed concerns that the measure would make doxxing easier and platforms would further remove online users' anonymity in the future.

Platforms have already moved to assuage users' concerns. Weibo CEO Wang Gaofei said two weeks ago that the policy would not be expanded to include accounts with follower counts below 500,000.

Bytedance's Douyin said on Tuesday that it would not ask for anything besides real names and that it would only allow verified accounts to view such information, adding that accounts deemed "risky" or "abnornal" would be prevented from seeing others' real names.

The new measures will remove the anonymity of thousands of influencers on social media platforms that are used daily by hundreds of millions of Chinese.

Several of the platforms said that accounts with over 1 million followers would be affected first and those that do not comply would face restrictions in their online traffic and income as a consequence.
(Reporting by Eduardo Baptista, editing by Ed Osmond and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

 

[The Prince of All Saiyans]

 

[MegaManX]

don't know if this is bad. In America, many faceless influencers are actually superpacs or foreign governments.

"i'm a proud american that hates"

Based in Moscow.

 

[DEAD7]

 

[CopiousX]

don't know if this is bad. In America, many faceless influencers are actually superpacs or foreign governments.

"i'm a proud american that hates"

Based in Moscow.

Then doxx the Russians. Leave citizens alone.


That's a false equivalency.

 

[Neuromancer]

 

[voiture]

I'm conflicted about this.
Lots of the right wing accounts that push the most BS on Twitter are faceless accounts. I wonder if the will be pushing their racism if they had to post with their actual name.

 

[Ironman]

Nah that's crazy

 

[bnew]

I'm conflicted about this.
Lots of the right wing accounts that push the most BS on Twitter are faceless accounts. I wonder if the will be pushing their racism if they had to post with their actual name.

thats why tiktok is difficult for them to be as effective when they don't show their face on a platform where the majority of creators present themselves as real people who stand by what they say.

not saying theres only a handful of racist tiktok accounts abut i've come across a handful and some a few of them just reposted rightwing media, others had text overlaying images or videos with music and i seen like 2 or 3 with the person talking over still images while poorly trying to refute an anti-racist tiktok video that went viral.

 

[Rembrandt]

China fukking sucks. Always blows my mind seeing Americans down to lose their right to privacy. Racist trolls or not

 

[AllHolosEve]

-I guess if you gonna be out there making money talking your shyt be ready to stand by it. More people online would be careful about what they say/do if they knew people could pull up. I'm on the fence about this.

 

[3rdWorld]