China Requiring You To Submit Photo ID To The Gov't If You Want To Create A Website

from the that'll-work dept

This isn’t really a surprise given China’s massive internet censorship (“Great Firewall”) efforts, but apparently the Chinese government is now requiring anyone who wants to set up a website in the country to submit their identity cards and photos of themselves before they can build a site. Oh yeah, plus they have to meet with gov’t regulators to get approval to register and set up a website. In other words, the crackdown is spreading… though plenty of folks in China appear to be getting around these new rules by setting up websites outside of China. In the meantime, what a way to kill the sort of entrepreneurial web spirit you need: imagine how many internet sites would never get created if they first required approval by a government bureaucrat?

Filed Under: , , ,

Rate this comment as insightful
Rate this comment as funny
You have rated this comment as insightful
You have rated this comment as funny
Flag this comment as abusive/trolling/spam
You have flagged this comment
The first word has already been claimed
The last word has already been claimed
Insightful Lightbulb icon Funny Laughing icon Abusive/trolling/spam Flag icon Insightful badge Lightbulb icon Funny badge Laughing icon Comments icon

Comments on “China Requiring You To Submit Photo ID To The Gov't If You Want To Create A Website”

Subscribe: RSS Leave a comment
24 Comments
Anonymous Coward says:

The BBC story is startlingly short on details. I wonder how the Chinese government will define “start a website”, since that’s such an extremely nebulous term. Third party blog tools? Facebook? Twitter? Shared google docs? Message boards? Which of these and under what circumstances constitutes starting a web site? What if I serve content from a port other than 80? What if it’s plain text and not html? Is that still a “web” site?

I expect it’s just a tool that they’ll use as a pretext to throw “dissidents” in jail for posting comments on youtube, rather than clarifying and then adhering to the actual text of the law.

Car Transport (user link) says:

Imagine That!

Thats kind of insane really, imagine if I had to register all my domains using a photo i.d.? That would be impossible as sometimes you purchase a domain name and don’t want your real name associated with it, like a social media page or the like. This site Enclosed Car Transport was purchased from the original owner, and would be detrimental to the business to have the downtime it would create if you had to show I.D. to register a domain

Add Your Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Have a Techdirt Account? Sign in now. Want one? Register here

Comment Options:

Make this the or (get credits or sign in to see balance) what's this?

What's this?

Techdirt community members with Techdirt Credits can spotlight a comment as either the "First Word" or "Last Word" on a particular comment thread. Credits can be purchased at the Techdirt Insider Shop »

Follow Techdirt

Techdirt Daily Newsletter

Techdirt Deals
Techdirt Insider Discord
The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...
Loading...