Weibo CEO Confirms New Policy Requires Users To Show Their Original Name In Online Comments

Weibo users with followers above one million accounts are asked to show their real name. (photo: smarty)

On Friday, October 20, China's Chief Executive Weibo confirmed that China may begin to reject anonymity for online commentators in politics and finance. They require to display usernames on their accounts. Weibo notified users that the policy would soon take effect.

Comments by Wang Gaofei, whose microblogging platform is on par with X in China, have caught the attention of local media and some Weibo users, amid concerns over rising government censorship and surveillance of the country's internet.

Some of Weibo's influence in recent days has said that they were told that users who commented on politics, entertainment and finance with one million followers or more should start displaying their real names. They did not say where the instructions came from. China's cyberspace regulators don't want to comment on this.

In Wang's case, his name appearance on his account was first shown by a user, who made him respond that he was testing this policy on his account first.

"A long-standing follower (from my account) all know that (I) try first using the new function itself," he wrote.

Wang, who has 957,000 followers on the platform, also said that this new real-name policy could in the future be extended to users with half a million followers or more, but not less. He also advises users to delete followers to avoid the policy.

Although most Chinese media industries are heavily regulated by the government, recent years have seen the emergence of popular bloggers or small independent media groups known as "zimetries", which often specialize in certain sectors and have gained significant reading and influence.

China's cyberspace regulators have been trying to control this activity, launching multi-prong attacks that have seen it close many bloggers or fine social media platforms for not taking sufficient action.