China's Sina Weibo microblog nears identity deadline

 

Efforts to censor messages posted to Weibo have not prevented false rumors from spreading

China's most popular microblogging site has said it expects 60% of its account holders to have registered accurate details about themselves by a state-imposed deadline.

Sina Corp's Weibo service - which is often compared to Twitter - has an estimated 260 million users.

Beijing's local government demanded that operators based in the city must obtain the information by 16 March.

The move was ordered to prevent the "spread of harmful" false rumours.

Users have been told to provide their name and mobile telephone number which must then be verified. Those who refuse will be barred from posting messages and will be limited to reading others' entries.

Examples of recent false stories include reports that North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un, had been assassinated during a stay at the country's embassy in Beijing, and a claim that people had taken syringes containing HIV-infected blood to Beijing to use in attacks.

Lawmaker members

Sina's update coincides with a study highlighting how Chinese censors already delete controversial messages from the service.

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh suggested that entries discussing political protests, the banned Falun Gong movement and pornography were among topics targeted by both automatic checks and human censors.

A separate study by BBC Monitoring suggested that the Chinese authorities wanted to use Weibo to "maintain social stability" rather than undermine the platform.

It noted that 141 deputies to the National People's Congress (NPC) and 183 members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) had signed up to the service - a move which attracted a lot of attention in the local media.

Although that still accounts for less than 10% of the deputies involved in the country's parliament and top political advisory body, the action appears to have proved popular.

A poll quoted by the semi-official China News Service (CNS) suggested that over 70% of the Chinese public thought that online expressions "will become a new avenue for China's democratic development", and nearly 60% thought that "it can help draw the government closer to the people".

'Democratic training'

CNS also reported how Cai Qi, a deputy from Zhejiang with more than one million followers, had asked for suggestions about what he should discuss in parliament. The article said he later based his proposals on some of the 12,000 replies he received.

Popular China Central Television (CCTV) host and CPPCC member Cui Yonguan said last month: "If several thousand people communicate with ordinary people and netizens every day, they may no longer have so much discontent in their hearts."

However, the Guangzhhou-based Southern Metropolis Daily newspaper published a commentary earlier this month saying that Weibo's rise could not substitute genuine "systemic reform".

It said the service provided "good democratic training" to the public, but added that there was a risk of social upheaval so long as deeper reforms remained indefinitely delayed.

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Chinese censors are blocking  terms related to "Occupy,"

 to stamp out the movement's spread in China

China Digital Times verifies a long list of banned keywords on Sina Weibo’s search function that combine “occupy” (占领) with a place name inside China: "provincial capitals, economically developed regions, and few symbolic local areas." Here are some of the keywords that contain the names of the capitals of Chinese provinces (in fact, all provincial capitals except Hefei of Anhui province and Guiyang of Guizhou province are on the list):

“Occupy Beijing”(占领北京), “Occupy Shanghai”(占领上海), “Occupy Guangzhou”(占领广州), “Occupy Xi’an”(占领西安), “Occupy Chongqin”(占领重庆), “Occupy Tianjin”(占领天津), “Occupy Urumqi”(占领乌鲁木齐), “Occupy Lhasa”(占领拉萨), “Occupy Changsha”(占领长沙), “Occupy Wuhan”(占领武汉), “Occupy Nanchang”(占领南昌), “Occupy Fuzhou”(占领福州), “Occupy Nanjing”(占领南京), “Occupy Dalian”(占领大连), “Occupy Hangzhou”(占领杭州), “Occupy Harbin”(占领哈尔滨), “Occupy Chengdu”(占领成都), “Occupy Kunming”(占领昆明), “Occupy Hohhot”(占领呼和浩特), “Occupy Haikou”(占领海口), “Occupy Zhengzhou”(占领郑州), “Occupy Changchun”(占领长春), “Occupy Shenyang”(占领沈阳), “Occupy Xining”(占领西宁), “Occupy Lanzhou”(占领兰州), “Occupy Taiyuan”(占领太原), “Occupy Yinchuan”(占领银川), “Occupy Shijiazhuang”(占领石家庄), “Occupy Jinan”(占领济南), “Occupy Nanning”(占领南宁).

Keywords containing non-capital cities:

“Occupy Jiling”(占领吉林), “Occupy Shenzhen”(占领深圳), “Occupy Wenzhou”(占领温州), “Occupy Qingdao”(占领青岛).

Keywords containing local areas:

“Occupy Wangfujing”(占领王府井), “Occupy Zhongnanhai”(占领中南海), and “Occupy Financial Street”(占领金融街).

Uncategorized keyword:

“Occupy China”(占领中国).

 

 

 

 

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