China Cracks Down Again On Internet Regulations, Forces Users To Register Full Names

It's a well-known fact, outside of China's walls, that China is one of the tougher places to truly indulge in the full Internet. A nationwide filter prevents easy access to places like Twitter and Facebook, as well as certain images that the government deems unsuitable for citizens to view for one reason or another. In other words, surfing in China is like surfing a partial Internet. Sadly, China's ways aren't entirely unique, as many other nations in the Middle East utilize similar filtering to blind its citizens from certain things. But now, it appears that surfing the 'net in China is about to become even more restrictive and difficult.

Just this past week, the nation initiated tighter Internet regulations and controls, which made legal the deletion of posts or entire pages that are said to contain "illegal" information. Naturally, it's pretty vague what justifies "illegal." Moreover, the rules now require ISPs to hand over information related to such matters, or face fines and punishment that presumably no business would want on their docket.


What's crazier still is this: the new rules require Internet users in China to register with their real names when signing up with network providers. In other words, no more hiding from proxy use. Monitoring has long since occurred in China, but now the country is cracking down even more in order to put real names to real Internet shenanigans. Internet users in the nation, at least in part, are pretty upset with the changes. But honestly, it's about par for the course in China. For some reason, we don't foresee things getting any more lax when it comes to Internet use over there.