Offensive nicknames pulled from the Internet   

國家網信辦：對互聯網賬號、頭像等信息加強審核

2月4日電 今日國家互聯網信息辦公室發布《互聯網用戶賬號名稱管理規定》(以下簡稱《規定》)。《規定》中明確指出，互聯網用戶賬號名稱，是指機構或個人在博客、微博客、即時通信工具、論壇、貼吧、跟帖評論等互聯網信息服務中注冊或使用的賬號名稱。《規定》要求互聯網信息服務提供者按照“后臺實名、前臺自愿”的原則，落實安全管理責任，配備與服務規模相適應的專業人員，對互聯網用戶提交的賬號名稱、頭像和簡介等注冊信息進行審核，對含有違法和不良信息的，不予注冊；保護用戶信息及公民個人隱私，自覺接受社會監督，及時處理公眾舉報的賬號名稱、頭像和簡介等注冊信息中的違法和不良信息。該《規定》將于2015年3月1日正式施行。[查看全文]

Companies asked to verify true identities of netizens and to clean up online accounts

Nicknames in cyberspace such as "Obama" and "Putin" are no longer available for netizens in China as the country vows to crack down on inappropriate and unlawful screen names, an industry regulator said on Wednesday.

Accounts pretending to be government organizations, celebrities and officials are also banned, the Cyberspace Administration of China said, as are nicknames that appear to advertise cults or pornography, or that damage State security.

The new rule requires netizens to use registered account names on virtually all platforms, including blogs, social networking tools and messaging applications, said Xu Feng, director of the administration's mobile network management bureau.

The authority promised to set up a complaint mechanism, giving users a chance to reapply for their accounts if they were shut down.

The rule will take effect on March 1.

Website operators and Internet companies have been asked to verify accounts and clean up those that are unqualified, the administration said.

Since last year, the administration has repeatedly asked Internet firms to vet accounts to keep cyberspace "clean and tidy".

Internet companies were asked by the administration to collect the real identities of its users last year.

Operators of forums, micro blogs and messaging platforms were also ordered to hire a monitoring team to take down illegal information.

"We found some accounts used names of the Central disciplinary inspector or well-known economic specialists to publish false information. Such behavior threatens the healthy development of the Web," said Xu.

Wang Sixin, a law professor at Communication University of China, said a tighter grip on illegal Internet information is very necessary.

"The account registration policy has been loose since the Internet came to China," Wang said. "Poor account management triggered an array of problems such as online fraud and an overflow of pornography."

"Now that there are more than 2 billion online accounts, it is time to shut down malicious accounts."

He added that Internet companies need to bear much of the responsibility to stop illegal activity because they are the biggest beneficiaries of China's booming cybereconomy.