Masking Beijing bloggers
China is contemplating requiring bloggers to register with their real name before they blog under a pseudonym. I understand why they want that--they (the Chinese government) doesn't tolerate unfettered dissent and when they have their inevitable "attitude adjustments" they want to know where to find the gadflies. I'm not condoning it, mind you, but I understand. Relative to their culture and government, it is a reasonable thing to do.
I hope that this idea doesn't catch on here. This is exactly the kind of thing that some idiot Congressman would think was a good idea and he/she would be completely supported by litigators who always want to know who to sue.
The power of pseudonymity is one of the great gifts of the Internet and is one of the great self-corrective mechanisms of a Democracy. Lose it and free speech on the Internet will be dialed down to a barely audible mumble.
Posted on October 24, 2006
