The regulation was "the latest campaign by the government to curb the global scourge of spam, pornographic messages and fraud on cellular phones,"But many people are concerned about the greater potentials that the government would use the new regulation to monitor citizens and to control the new communication technology.
Such a real ID policy was initiated in South Korea in 2007. The Korean government designed the real-name system on the Internet to prevent cyber crimes such as libel and privacy infringement. According to the Law on Internet Address Management, online users are required to provide their personal information such as real names and resident registration numbers (like SSN in the US) when they try to post comments or upload any content. Since then, there have been hot debates over freedom of expression on cyberspace.
In April 2009, Korean government required Google's Korea unit to comply to the real-name system. However, the Google refused to do so in the a statement titled "Freedom of Expression on the Internet":
Google thinks the freedom of expression is most important value to uphold on the internet. We concluded in the end that it is impossible to provide benefits to internet users while observing this country’s law because the law does not fall in line with Google’s principles.If you have to reveal your real identity to upload a video on youbute.com or put a comment on nytimes,com, would you like to do so?
I believe that the whole point of showing and giving out extremely personal information in order to post things online is an infringement of our freedoms as citizens of the U.S. It would seem that there are constantly new ideas or ways coming about in hopes to keep the world a 'safer' place, but 'safer' for whom really? I do not think that anyone should have to give personal information to use the internet, or to use a cell phone for that matter.
ReplyDeleteby angie birch
I am already an extremely private person and I would find that a gross invasion. I don't think it would stop people from posting porn or libel content. It is already easy enough to find out who people really are. Identity theft is already a problem and what's to stop someone from posting libel information in another persons name. The only thing that more laws do is restrict those of us who are trying to live an honest life. If people want to post content restricted by these laws they will find ways around it. I personally would not continue to post if my information was more readily available on the internet.
ReplyDeleteI can understand where the Chinese and Korean government are coming from. They are trying to make their country "safer" and give their people a feeling of security by showing who the real person is behind everything. However giving up your identity to thousands of people seems like it would cause more trouble and feelings of insecurity than good. If it were manditory to give your identity, the people you are wanting to stop will still find a way around it.
ReplyDeleteDanielle Glenn
I can understand that people need to know who the person is for different things. But really it should be up to the people on the internet to say who they are or not.
ReplyDeleteWho will protect the people that stand up for something that a country's government doesn't agree with?
Also who is to say that some one else wouldn't use your identity on the internet?
Nanette Johnson
Personally, I think it's a good idea. Take YouTube for example...there is so much pointless stupid stuff uploaded to YouTube everyday. It wastes our time and kind of just makes us even more lazy and stupid than we already are. Maybe by requiring full information about the person wanting to upload a dumb video of a cat chasing a moth, (just a quick example...I'm sure there are many videos of this nature online...why? Well because anyone who has ever had a cat can tell you...that's what they do. Why waste time watching it online when I can look away from the screen and see a cat doing it live and in person?)Where was I ...oh yeah...anyone wanting to upload may be deterred and decide against assisting in rotting the minds of millions of Americans. By asking for a persons real identity, we might be able to reduce the content of some of these sites to actual, purposeful, thoughtful and more entertaining bits of video.
ReplyDeleteAnd when it comes to leaving comments on sites...If you truly believe in what you're typing, you shouldn't be ashamed of it. So why the desire to hide your identity?
I really agree with John. One more thing, it says you have to give them your true ID, but it doesnt say that they will post all of your personal information. It seems to me that it is more of an information gathering for safety purposes.If you prove who you are, maybe they will just use like your first name on the posting. My favorite line from John's post was the point that drives everything else home, "If you truly believe in what you're typing, you shouldn't be ashamed of it. So why the desire to hide your identity?"
ReplyDeleteBy Dani Manning
I believe that giving the personal information is a good thing but also could be bad. Everything has its pros and cons the pros of this is how youll know if someone is posting something bad or doing bad things online. The cons would be what if someone gets a hold of your information it could end up bad for you. Overall in my opinion i think this is ridiculous and shouldnt have happened in korea and if it were to happen in the united states i dont think anyone would agree with this and nothing would be posted online.
ReplyDeleteBy:Andrew Archuleta
I know it's scary to think about the government monitering us, but they kind of already can and are. Although it's a matter of privacy, how are we to know if requiring real identification to use the internet would be positive or negative?
ReplyDeleteChina's got the right idea about potentially being able to downsize spam and pornography and fraud, and hopefully whatever people post on the internet is reasonable enough that they aren't ashamed to use their real identities.
There is the issue of privacy invasion and libel, but that just comes down to how much governmental control are people going to accept, or whether they agree to accept it at all.
By Elise Erlandson.
I understand why the government would want a policy like this, but is it benefiting us or putting us in danger? I don't want everyone and everything I come in contact with to have my personal information, that's why it's "personal". We don't have to be involved with the bad things online, the people who are involved with it choose to be. Yes I agree that there are many disturbing sites and things that go on on the internet, but you wont be in the middle of it if you don't go looking for it.
ReplyDeleteBy Jordan Cornelison
I do not think that anyone should have to give out their personal identity on the internet. Possibly by creating a law that requires such many internet scams, would be eliminated. However then I feel that would change the character of the internet entirely; and what people looked at, bought, or blogged about would be dramatically altered.
ReplyDeleteI also feel that comparing the United States' internet laws to Korean laws is a bit unfair. Korea's government is much more restrictive than the United State's government which is governed by, "we the people" in Korea it is governed by not so much the people. So maybe the question is should Korea be allowed to force their citizens prof of identification to upload a youtube video? Honestly the United States government is probably not going to even suggest such things happening at least not until some heated debates occur in the upper branches of the government, and serious research is done on the situation.
By: Jessica Braun
I would not upload or participate on ANY online website if I was required to post my real ID to their site. I would feel very nervous having that much information about myself available online. (I know that it wouldn't be publicly posted, but I still feel that someone would probably be able to get ahold of this info somehow.) I also would feel that many of my freedoms were taken away. It's not a need to hide my identity, it's a need to keep my personal information, personal. When I'm online people can know things about me, but I'd rather keep it as vague as possible. I do not own a Facebook page for just such a reason. I feel that it gives way too much insight into my life, that other people, besides friends, can see. Some people post every little thought, or activity they are doing that day to Facebook and many people are able to read it. I once heard of a man who was going on vacation for the weekend, posted that he was leaving on Facebook. When he returned home he found many of his belongings stolen and his house trashed. This is why I choose to keep myself as anonymous as possible on the internet. Being required to post my real ID to a site it to allow me access feels very invasive to me, and not something I would be willing to do.
ReplyDelete--Zeph Davis
In my opinion,the government doesn't need to require the ID because it is against freedom of expression as the Google said in the statement.
ReplyDeleteSome people don't prefer to show their ID because the showing ID sometime makes them trouble,like making relationship between friends bad.
The less communication society is serious problem in these days. Certainly, the showing ID makes a deep relationship society. Facebook is good example of deep communicating society.
When people make account of facebook, people need to reveal their ID. This system makes the homepage different from other social network service,like mixi.
I admit to the advantage of showing the ID; however, I think the anonymous is also useful in the society. Because, not always but sometime people write not their real opinion but sentences by using "good words" on the facebook.It means people fear to injured their reputation and don't criticize others. On the other hand, people can write their opinion and sometime criticize to the social affairs if they are anonymous.If other person think the opinion of anonymous is not right, they just say against opinion. So, they don't need to worry about be blamed themselves by others.In the anonymous world,only their opinions are blamed by others.I think the anonymous makes people more discuss one things
Why Chinese government want to know the user's ID? I think the government try to regulate the opinion which against the government. It become an advantage for government, but what is the benefit for people. Their freedom of speech is interrupted by government.So, I think people don't need to show their ID to government.
By Fumiya Hashizume