China is planning to introduce a national internet ID system that could make it harder for people to stay anonymous online. The Ministry of Public Security and the Cyberspace Administration of China say the plan aims to protect privacy and stop online fraud. Under the proposal, citizens would get a single ID to use across the internet.
Websites and apps would not have to collect personal information like phone numbers. Using the national ID system would be voluntary for websites and apps. The Chinese government already closely monitors what people do online.
Social media platforms like Weibo, Xiaohongshu, and Douyin have put in place stricter controls on what users can post. But tracking people across different platforms has been fragmented. A national internet ID could make monitoring efforts more centralized.
China’s internet ID proposal debates
“With this internet ID, your every move online, all your digital traces, will be monitored by the regulators,” said Rose Luqiu, a journalism professor at Hong Kong Baptist University. “That will definitely impact people’s behavior.”
The proposal has led to a lot of discussion on Weibo.
Many comments agreed with regulators’ worries about too many apps accessing personal information. Some influencers have supported the idea that online platforms make money from users’ personal data but do not protect their privacy well enough. However, some legal experts warn that a national internet ID system could give the government too much power to watch what people do online.
Lao Dongyan, a law professor at Tsinghua University, said protecting personal information could be an excuse for making social control a regular thing. Shen Kui, a law professor at Peking University, added that a centralized internet ID would make people afraid to use the internet. “The potential risks and harms of a unified ‘internet ID’ and ‘internet license’ are immense,” he wrote in an online commentary.
The proposal is open for public comment until the end of August. It remains to be seen how it will be implemented and what impact it will have on privacy and online behavior in China.
