China Has Another Crack at Cell Phone Real Name System

Way back in the mists of time, China tried to implement a real name system for anyone who wanted to buy a SIM card in China.

Ostensibly introduced to try to curb the massive amounts of text message spam that is sent daily, many cynically suggested that the system was put into place to keep check on any possible subversives.

In 2011, a year after the first legislation was passed, there was little sign of the system out on the streets in Shanghai.

The problem was that not many people actually followed the new rules, either giving false information when they bought a card, or simply refusing to fill in the registration forms.  The insane competition in China's mobile phone market means that SIM card vendors are more interested in making a sale than going through the long drawn out procedure of registering someone's ID card with their cell phone number.  Some enterprising young Chinese used the new regulations to their advantage, selling pre-registered set up with someone else's personal details.

New rules that aim to force the three major cell phone carriers in China - China Unicom, China Mobile and China Telecom - to implement the legislation that was passed in 2010, was rubber-stamped for a two phase roll-out starting in September.  Out on the streets in Shenzhen, a few sellers still offering to sell SIM cards without ID.

“I can feel that the real-name registration is getting increasingly tougher,” Lin said. “It is for the better. But measures must be taken to ensure that no personal information will be disclosed, otherwise harassment calls will be too annoying.”

Since the few bothered to implement a law that enforced ID checks in the last three years, some are understandably concerned that submitting their personal details to phone companies with increasingly narrowing profit margins will actually lead to an increase in text message spam, not less.  Reassuringly, the 2013 plan includes substantial fines that would be imposed if any personal information is sold illegally.

Regarding privacy protection, the ministry said mobile providers and Internet service providers will face fines ranging from 10,000 yuan (US$1,621) to 30,000 yuan if they are found to have disclosed, changed, destroyed or sold their customers’ personal information.

Given the spotty history of China's ability to actually implement laws in recent years, it remains to be seen if this legislation of legislation will actually be enforced.

Nailing Jello to the Wall: What's Weibo Up To?

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.