The much vaunted Weibo real name registration kicked in today, leaving pretty much everyone confused as to what the bloody hell people at Sina.com are playing at.
This morning, many users were reporting that even though they hadn't actually filled out their info - giving their state issued ID number and real name - were greeted with a thank you message informing them that they had indeed given their state issued ID number and real name.
Since I hadn't registered my ID number (I'm not Chinese, and don't have an ID card) I was pretty much locked out of the web interface. I'd bought my phone pre-pay SIM card from an anonymous vendor in Dazhalan (which causes its own problems because the SIM card is tied to Hebei province and not Beijing) and Weibo steadfastly refused to send a confirmation SMS to my phone. Whenever I tried to post a message, an alert box popped up over the text box informing me that I had to register to post.
Fortunately, both the Android client and my iPad client were working fine, and I could quite easily reply to threads started on Weibo, I just couldn't start any of my own. For all its security theatre, the real-name registration hasn't actually prevented those who want to post subversive stuff anonymously. In fact, they've probably compounded the issue, since mobile devices and tablets that are much easier to carry around and photograph Chinese policemen beating the hell out of a disabled beggar on the street than a laptop.
It's difficult to figure what's going on. Most of the whistleblowers, commentators and dissenters who currently use Weibo are usually the relatively well off middle class, most of whom can quite easily afford a smartphone or even an iPad, which currently allows you to circumvent the registration process. The other group of users are those who are reliant on using smokey Internet cafes that are routinely checked by the police, and you need to present your ID card in order to buy time on the computers anyway.
And how did I eventually register? I used a false name and corresponding number that I found on an MMORPG forum.
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