Real-name system

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A real-name system is a system in which users can register an account on a blog, website or bulletin board system using their legal name.

Contents

Users are required to provide identification credentials and their legal name. A public pseudonym can also be used, but the person's identity is available to legal authorities for use in criminal investigations. Real-name systems are employed on websites such as Facebook and Quora.

History

Real name systems originated from government regulations. Governments provided citizens with official surnames. This allowed them to track property ownership and inheritance, collect taxes, maintain court records, perform police work, conscript soldiers and control epidemics. [1]

Germany

For privacy reasons, Germany’s 1997 § 13 VI Telemediengesetz (nowadays: § 19 II TTDSG) does not allow forcing people to use real-names if a real-name is not necessary for an internet service. On 27 January 2022, the highest court in civil matters, the Bundesgerichtshof, decided that Facebook’s ban of pseudonyms is illegal for users who registered before GDPR was implemented in May 2018.

Japan

In February 2023, the proposal to introduce internet real-name system which similar to China one's was announced by Digital Minister Taro Kono and he said: "If we first use the phone number card for authentication when creating accounts for various services such as social networking services, we can ensure that age restrictions are strictly observed, so I think the phone number card will be useful in this area as well. Digital Minister Kono stated that "some unsolicited videos are clearly criminal acts, and in such cases, people must be made aware of the fact that they are crimes", and that "putting videos on the Internet for fun will affect people's lives for a long time". He also stated that it is necessary to cooperate with the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) and others to provide guidance in the field of education in order to improve internet literacy. [2]

South Korea

South Korea was the first country to put an internet real-name system into practice. [3] Since 2009, 35 Korean websites have implemented a name registration system in compliance with South Korea's amended Information and Communications Network Act. This act was enforced after the suicide of Choi Jin-sil, which was believed to have been related to malicious bulletin board comments about her. Real name systems aim to minimize the amount of negative information published on the Internet and encourage netizens to be responsible for their online behavior.

South Koreans have been familiar with offline real-name systems since the mid-1990s, when legislation was introduced that required a real name to be used for property and financial transactions. In August 2011 hackers accessed the databases for the real-name system, obtaining the registration numbers of 35 million people. [4]

On 23 August 2012, the Constitutional Court of Korea ruled unanimously that the real-name requirements imposed on portal service providers were unconstitutional, claiming that this violates freedom of speech in cyberspace. [5] As a result, the so-called "Choi Jin-sil Law" was discarded.

The Constitutional Court said:

The system does not seem to have been beneficial to the public. Despite the enforcement of the system, the number of illegal or malicious postings online has not decreased. Instead, users moved to foreign Websites and the system became discriminatory against domestic operators. It also prevented foreigners who didn’t have a resident registration number here from expressing their opinions online. [6]

China

The Chinese government in 2011 promulgated its Regulations on the Development and Management of microblogging, which stated that microblogging sites should ensure users were registered under their real names. [7] Major microblogging sites like Sina Weibo, 163 and Sohu agreed to put real name systems into practice by 16 March 2012. Users who had not provided their real information would be barred from posting and transmitting messages thereafter. [8] In February 2015, the Cyberspace Administration of China introduced Provisions on the Administration of Account Names of Internet Users. [9] Article 5 of the provisions requires internet information service providers to ensure that users register accounts  after undergoing real identity information authentication. This effectively imposed real name policies on all internet services in China. On 1 June 2017, the Chinese Cybersecurity Law took effect, requiring that everyone who uses Chinese websites to provide their phone number. China's state-run media claimed this would provide a "safe and real" Internet environment. [10]

With respect to video games, Chinese regulations require real-name authentication ("real-name ID") since 1 January 2020. The regulations are set to become more stringent on 1 June 2021, requiring authentication with a government system instead of third-party services. The aim of the regulations is to curb excessive gaming by minors. People under 18 are restricted by these regulations to 90 minutes of gaming between 08:00 and 22:00 (180 minutes on holidays), and are also subject to restrictions on in-app payments based on their age. [11]

Social networking sites

The enforcement of real-name systems has resulted in a series of conflicts known as nymwars, which raised issues regarding naming, cultural sensitivity, public and private identity, privacy, and the role of social media in modern discourse.

Google

Google previously introduced a real-name policy in July 2011, requiring users to use their real names on YouTube and Google+. User accounts that were identified as not following the policy were suspended. After wide-ranging criticisms from a number of high-profile commentators, Google dropped the real-name policy in July 2014 and ended restrictions on names. [12]

Facebook

Facebook employs a real-name system. Its online Name Policy states: "Facebook is a community where people use their real identities. We require everyone to provide their real names, so you always know who you're connecting with. This helps keep our community safe." [13] This strongly encourages users to provide real names when creating an account.

Facebook's first users were university students. According to Danah Boyd, a social media scholar, "people provided their name because they saw the site as an extension of campus life." Later users adopted the norms and practices of the early adopters. The use of real names contributed to the quality and quantity of information Facebook has about its users. Facebook became an identity service by encouraging users to share their lives, including their real names. [14]

Emil Protalinski, technology journalist for The Next Web, states that some "Facebook users opt to use pseudonyms to hide from stalkers, abusive exes, and even governments that don't condone free speech." [15] Pseudonyms allow these users to connect with colleagues, friends, and family without compromising their safety.

"People feel as though their privacy has been violated when their agency has been undermined or when information about a particular social context has been obscured in ways that subvert people's ability to make an informed decision about what to reveal." [14] Some users may feel uncomfortable with displaying their real names and choose a fake name that appears real to others.

Twitter

Twitter registration page saying "Name looks great" after a made-up, meaningless, and unformatted name is entered. Twitter name looks great.png
Twitter registration page saying "Name looks great" after a made-up, meaningless, and unformatted name is entered.

Unlike Facebook, the Twitter social networking site does not require real-names for Twitter accounts. According to former CEO Dick Costolo Twitter does not care about real names. Whether the information comes from an account with a real name or one using a pseudonym does not matter. [16] However, Twitter verifies accounts of prominent users such as celebrities and businesses in order to protect them against identity theft/fraud.

Quora

Previously, Quora required users to register with the complete form of their real names rather than an Internet pseudonym or other screen name. [17] Although verification of names was not required, false names could be reported by the community.

On 19 April 2021, Quora eliminated the requirement that users use their real names and allowed users to use pseudonyms. [18]

Yahoo Japan

From late 2020, Yahoo Japan has required users to register their Japanese mobile phone numbers when they open a new account. On 18 October 2022, Yahoo Japan announced on that only users who register their Japanese mobile phone numbers with its news website “Yahoo! News” will be able to post comments on news articles on the site. [19] [20] [21]

Related Research Articles

Single sign-on (SSO) is an authentication scheme that allows a user to log in with a single ID to any of several related, yet independent, software systems.

Identity management (IdM), also known as identity and access management, is a framework of policies and technologies to ensure that the right users have the appropriate access to technology resources. IdM systems fall under the overarching umbrellas of IT security and data management. Identity and access management systems not only identify, authenticate, and control access for individuals who will be utilizing IT resources but also the hardware and applications employees need to access.

Internet privacy involves the right or mandate of personal privacy concerning the storage, re-purposing, provision to third parties, and display of information pertaining to oneself via the Internet. Internet privacy is a subset of data privacy. Privacy concerns have been articulated from the beginnings of large-scale computer sharing and especially relate to mass surveillance.

A federated identity in information technology is the means of linking a person's electronic identity and attributes, stored across multiple distinct identity management systems.

A digital identity is data stored on computer systems relating to an individual, organization, application, or device. For individuals, it involves the collection of personal data that is essential for facilitating automated access to digital services, confirming one's identity on the internet, and allowing digital systems to manage interactions between different parties. It is a component of a person's social identity in the digital realm, often referred to as their online identity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">OpenID</span> Open and decentralized authentication protocol standard

OpenID is an open standard and decentralized authentication protocol promoted by the non-profit OpenID Foundation. It allows users to be authenticated by co-operating sites using a third-party identity provider (IDP) service, eliminating the need for webmasters to provide their own ad hoc login systems, and allowing users to log in to multiple unrelated websites without having to have a separate identity and password for each. Users create accounts by selecting an OpenID identity provider, and then use those accounts to sign on to any website that accepts OpenID authentication. Several large organizations either issue or accept OpenIDs on their websites.

An anonymous post, is an entry on a textboard, anonymous bulletin board system, or other discussion forums like Internet forum, without a screen name or more commonly by using a non-identifiable pseudonym. Some online forums such as Slashdot do not allow such posts, requiring users to be registered either under their real name or utilizing a pseudonym. Others like JuicyCampus, AutoAdmit, 2channel, and other Futaba-based imageboards thrive on anonymity. Users of 4chan, in particular, interact in an anonymous and ephemeral environment that facilitates rapid generation of new trends.

Microblogging is a form of blogging using short posts without titles known as microposts. Microblogs "allow users to exchange small elements of content such as short sentences, individual images, or video links", which may be the major reason for their popularity. Some popular social networks such as X (Twitter), Threads, Mastodon, Tumblr, Koo, and Instagram can be viewed as collections of microblogs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Weibo</span> Chinese microblogging website

Weibo, previously Sina Weibo, is a Chinese microblogging (weibo) website. Launched by Sina Corporation on 14 August 2009, it is one of the biggest social media platforms in China, with over 582 million monthly active users as of Q1 2022. The platform has been a huge financial success, with surging stocks, lucrative advertising sales and high revenue and total earnings per quarter. At the start of 2018, it surpassed the US$30 billion market valuation mark for the first time.

Weibo is a general term for microblogging, but normally understood as Chinese-based mini-blogging services, including social chat sites and platform sharing.

Since the arrival of early social networking sites in the early 2000s, online social networking platforms have expanded exponentially, with the biggest names in social media in the mid-2010s being Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat. The massive influx of personal information that has become available online and stored in the cloud has put user privacy at the forefront of discussion regarding the database's ability to safely store such personal information. The extent to which users and social media platform administrators can access user profiles has become a new topic of ethical consideration, and the legality, awareness, and boundaries of subsequent privacy violations are critical concerns in advance of the technological age.

Nymwars is a name given to series of conflicts over policies that mandate all users of certain internet communications platforms identify themselves using their legal names. The term is mostly associated with Google's name policies on Google+ and YouTube. Nymwars is a blend word composed from (pseudo)nym and wars. The name appears to have gained prominence as the hashtag "#nymwars" on Twitter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Microsoft account</span> User account required for Microsoft-owned services

A Microsoft account or MSA is a single sign-on personal user account for Microsoft customers to log in to consumer Microsoft services, devices running on one of Microsoft's current operating systems, and Microsoft application software.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brand page</span> Online social networking parlance

A brand page, in online social networking parlance, is a profile on a social networking website which is considered distinct from an actual user profile in that it is created and managed by at least one other registered user as a representation of a non-personal online identity. This feature is most used to represent the brands of organizations associated with, properties owned by, or general interests favored by a user of the hosting network.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Twister (software)</span> Blog software

Twister is a decentralized, experimental peer-to-peer microblogging program which uses end-to-end encryption to safeguard communications. Based on BitTorrent- and Bitcoin-like protocols, it has been likened to a distributed version of Twitter.

Google's changes to its privacy policy on March 16, 2012, enabled the company to share data across a wide variety of services. These embedded services include millions of third-party websites that use AdSense and Analytics. The policy was widely criticized for creating an environment that discourages Internet innovation by making Internet users more fearful and wary of what they do online.

The gathering of personally identifiable information (PII) is the practice of collecting public and private personal data that can be used to identify an individual for both legal and illegal applications. PII owners often view PII gathering as a threat and violation of their privacy. Meanwhile, entities such as information technology companies, governments, and organizations use PII for data analysis of consumer shopping behaviors, political preference, and personal interests.

Account verification is the process of verifying that a new or existing account is owned and operated by a specified real individual or organization. A number of websites, for example social media websites, offer account verification services. Verified accounts are often visually distinguished by check mark icons or badges next to the names of individuals or organizations.

Proof of personhood (PoP) is a means of resisting malicious attacks on peer to peer networks, particularly, attacks that utilize multiple fake identities, otherwise known as a Sybil attack. Decentralized online platforms are particularly vulnerable to such attacks by their very nature, as notionally democratic and responsive to large voting blocks. In PoP, each unique human participant obtains one equal unit of voting power, and any associated rewards.

The Internet real-name system in China is a real-name system in which Internet service providers and Internet content providers in the People's Republic of China are required to collect users' real names, ID numbers, and other information when providing services. Since the implementation of the real-name system on the Internet may lead to the infringement and narrowing of the constitutionally protected speech space of Internet users, it has attracted concerns from all sides and generated much controversy in Chinese society. Only a few countries in the world, such as South Korea, have implemented a real-name system on the Internet.

References

  1. ↑ Scott, James. (1998). Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed.
  2. ↑ "マイナカードを利用し年齢制限も 河野デジタル相 迷惑動画問題で" (in Japanese). Feb 12, 2023. Archived from the original on February 13, 2023.
  3. ↑ Greenleaf, Graham; Park, Whon-il (2014). "South Korea's innovations in data privacy principles: Asian comparisons". Computer Law & Security Review. 30 (5): 492–505. doi:10.1016/j.clsr.2014.07.011.
  4. ↑ Ramstad, Evan (2012-08-24). "South Korea Court Knocks Down Online Real-Name Rule". Wall Street Journal. ISSN   0099-9660 . Retrieved 2021-06-03.
  5. ↑ Korea Times, "Online real-name system unconstitutional", August 23, 2012.
  6. ↑ The Constitutional Court Decision 2010Hun-Ma47 delivered on August 23, 2012.
  7. ↑ "China moves to tame microbloggers amid censorship claims". Reuters. 29 May 2012.
  8. ↑ "Real name rule to add to Sina Weibo's woes". Financial Times. 28 February 2012. Retrieved 2020-10-23.
  9. ↑ "互联网用户账号名称管理规定_中央网络安全和信息化委员会办公室". www.cac.gov.cn. Retrieved 2024-06-16.
  10. ↑ "网络实名制全面到来，如何保障我们的虚拟空间更"清爽"". xinhuanet.com (in Chinese). 2017-08-30. Archived from the original on February 19, 2019. Retrieved 2019-02-19.
  11. ↑ "China's new 'Online Game Anti-Addiction Real-Name Authentication System'". mygamez.com. 24 April 2021. Retrieved 2021-05-25.
  12. ↑ Blue, Violet (15 July 2014). "Google reverses 'real names' policy, apologizes". ZDNet.
  13. ↑ "Facebook's Name Policy - Facebook Help Center - Facebook". www.facebook.com.
  14. 1 2 boyd, danah (2012). "The Politics of 'Real Names': Power, Context, and Control in Networked Publics." Communications of the ACM.
  15. ↑ Protalinski, Emil (2012-09-21). "Facebook tests prompt asking you to snitch on your friends who aren't using their real name". The Next Web.
  16. ↑ Ingram, Mathew (2011-09-16). "Why Twitter doesn't care what your real name is". Gigaom.com.
  17. ↑ "Quora Terms of Service" . Retrieved February 15, 2017.
  18. ↑ D'Angelo, Adam (April 19, 2021). "Allowing everyone to contribute to Quora". Quora. Retrieved April 21, 2021.
  19. ↑ "Yahoo Japan to require users' cell phone numbers to post comments on news stories". Mainichi Daily News. Oct 22, 2022.
  20. ↑ "Yahoo! News to require mobile numbers to post any comments". Oct 19, 2022.
  21. ↑ "Yahoo News comments to require phone-linked ID". Oct 19, 2022.
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