On October 23, the famous book blogger and author "Tu Pao Ding" announced his departure from Weibo, China's largest Weibo platform. She saw rumors online that Weibo was planning to introduce a new rule requiring "big Vs" (verified influencers with large followings) to display their legal names in public profiles. For more than two decades, Tuchou Ding has used this pseudonym to share book reviews and current affairs commentary with her 2 million Weibo followers. She wrote in a post: "As the real-name system approaches, I plan to abandon this platform."
Eight days later, Tu Shao Ding's worries were confirmed. On October 31, Weibo and several other major Chinese social media platforms, including WeChat, Douban, Zhihu, Xiaohongshu, and Kuaishou, announced that they now require the public to see the legal names of popular users. Weibo said in a public post that the new rules will first apply to all users with more than 1 million followers, and then to those with more than 500,000 followers.
Chinese social media users have expressed criticism and concern about the new rules, which many believe will infringe on user privacy, encourage toxic online behavior such as defamation and harassment, and limit the diversity of voices on the Chinese Internet. Some well-known and influential Internet celebrities, such as science blogger Mingyu Zhuiran, have decided to delete some of their followers to avoid disclosing their identities. Others, like rapper "Kindergarten Killer," decided to delete their social media accounts entirely. (Although Tu Baoding is still active on Weibo, as of press time, her number of fans has dropped to 219,700).
When Cathy Zhang, a 33-year-old lifestyle blogger in Shanghai, first saw a screenshot of the new policy posted on Weibo, she thought it was fake news. "This goes against common sense and strips social media of all anonymity," she said. But the next day, she discovered it was true: Weibo CEO Wang Gaofei's profile showed his real name and occupation - "Mobile Internet Analyst."
Zhang, who has more than 35,000 Weibo followers, has been posting information about health and occasionally gender issues on the platform for more than 10 years, relying on her account to make ends meet. She has never published her full name or identity online, which has somewhat shielded her from the hateful messages she often receives from online trolls. Although Zhang doesn't have enough followers to be affected by the new regulations, she is still worried. "I feel like I just barely dodged a bullet," she said. "Now, Ms. Zhang plans to proactively 'clear fans,' or 'clear followers.' This term refers to the process of reducing the number of followers by blocking inactive fans, bots, and trolls."
Many other influencers are also using this tactic to avoid being affected by the new rules. "Tianjin Stock Hero", which publishes financial content, deleted more than 6 million followers overnight, reducing its number of followers from 7 million to more than 900,000. Ken, another Weibo "big V", used the extension software "Network Zombie Cleaner" to delete about 20,000 followers in the past month. Developed by software engineer XiaoGu, the software allows users to delete inactive fans in large numbers and has accumulated more than 100,000 views on CSDN, a Chinese code-sharing forum.
An executive at an influencer agency in Beijing, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he was concerned that many influencers would lose money and visibility because of the new rules. "Many people choose to remain silent for the time being and wait for the results of policy implementation," he said.
Jiang Min (transliteration), a professor of communication at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, said that the real-name system will limit the influence of major opinion leaders, and they still have a lot of power on the Chinese Internet. "People who speak out have become accustomed to using intelligence and creativity to navigate red lines and guide public opinion even under strict censorship," she said.
Eric Liu, a former Weibo censor who is now the U.S.-based editor of China Digital Times, said the new policy was likely a response to directives from the Office of the Central Cybersecurity and Information Technology Commission, China’s internet regulator. In recent years, the Cyberspace Administration of China has introduced a number of policies to regulate anonymity on Chinese social media platforms: in 2017, it mandated that Weibo users must register with their real names; last year, it required users to display their IP location next to their username.
Jiang Min believes that the new policy may have a chilling effect on Weibo’s most followed users. But she said that given the existing real-name registration policy, what they fear is not government suppression but supervision from other users. "The new rules will force people to unify their online identities with their offline identities, making it more difficult to express controversial views."
Liu sees the new rules as another tool to silence outspoken online influencers by threatening to disclose their identities to the public. He said the updated policy will lead to increased monitoring of Weibo opinion leaders working in state-affiliated institutions, schools and workplaces because they are deemed disloyal or lacking in patriotism.
"This policy will put many already endangered critical voices in further danger," Liu said.
Text/restofworld