Stefan Mileschin

The Chinese government is so worried that people will say rude words like "Tibet," "Tiananmen Square" and "corruption" on Twitter-like sites that it is expanding its censorious blogging laws to cover them.

According to Reuters, China will expand real-name registration for microblog users in a bid to control China's wildly popular Twitter-like websites.

While the officials admit that microblogs are useful as an outlet for critical public opinion, they are fed up with them spreading what they call unfounded rumours and vulgarities. It insists that online content must be acceptable to the ruling Communist Party.

Some of these "rumours" often are about Communist Party officials who rule their regions like mediaeval despots and would be doing so whatever political system is in charge. Lately some of their antics have been hitting the twitter-sphere making other people see how corrupt they actually are. Apparently this is unacceptable to the ruling Communist Party.

Beijing said it would give users three months to register with their real names or face legal consequences.

Registration is being tested in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, and will be extended to other areas once the pilot programmes prove successful.

However while this is what we would have expected, there does appear to be a slight change in the way that such requirements are presented.

Wang Chen, minister in charge of the State Council Information Office (SCIO), told Reuters that the Communist Party saw microblogs as a method of reflecting the social situation and public opinion, and broadcast a positive public voice.

What it wants to stop is those people who have irrational voices, express a negative public opinion and want to distribute harmful information. So TechEye readers and hacks then. Still, seeing some good in Twitter is uncharacteristic of the regime and might indicate a charge in approach from the last significant post-war controlled economy

http://news.techeye.net/internet/chi...er-for-twitter