Get the latest tech news

China tightens internet controls with new centralized form of virtual ID

China has mastered the craft of policing the internet, operating one of the world’s most extensive online censorship and surveillance regimes. With mandatory identity checks on every online platform, it has become almost impossible for users to stay anonymous.

Instead of requiring individuals to submit their personal information for identity checks separately on each platform, the government now seeks to centralize the process by issuing a virtual ID that will allow users to sign in across different social media apps and websites. Control of China’s vast portion of the global internet has largely been delegated to a decentralized range of different groups, with authorities relying partially on the social media platforms themselves to identify comments deemed problematic. Lao Dongyan, a prominent law professor at Tsinghua University, compared the system to “installing a surveillance device on every individual’s online activity” in a post on Weibo, an X-like Chinese social media platform.

Get the Android app