In the two weeks since the Ministry of Public Security and the Cyberspace Administration of China published a draft law proposing an ostensibly voluntary national Internet ID program<\/a> and opened it up for public comment, there has been intense platform censorship of online discussion and articles about the proposal. By last week, Weibo was already blocking numerous related search terms<\/a> (\u201cnational Internet ID,\u201d \u201cgovernment plans to issue Internet ID numbers to all users,\u201d \u201cWeChat, Taobao, Xiaohongshu, others begin beta-testing national Internet ID system,\u201d among many others) and most verified Weibo users posting about the proposal had disabled comment sections on those posts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the last week alone, CDT Chinese editors have archived eight deleted articles from Chinese academics, legal experts, and commentators expressing serious reservations about the national Internet ID<\/a> proposal. Specific criticisms of the proposal include: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Three articles in particular seem to have touched a nerve: a short essay<\/a> by Tsinghua University philosophy professor Huang Yusheng<\/a> led to his Weibo account being permanently banned<\/a>, and two other articles\u2014a short critical analysis<\/a> by Lao Dongyan<\/a>, a well-known professor of criminal law at Tsinghua University, and a longer critical analysis<\/a> including commentary from Lao and Peking University law professor Shen Kui<\/a>\u2014led to Lao Dongyan\u2019s Weibo account being temporarily muted<\/a>, unable to add new posts for 90 days. Lao has also been the target of ad hominem and misogynistic attacks from online trolls due to her strong criticism of the proposed law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n