The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) issued a draft regulation on Friday that seeks to scrutinize online comments and mobile bullet chats on social media platforms, asking the providers not to allow users without registering their real names at the platforms to comment.

In order to evaluate online commentators' behaviors, activities of severe rule violations would be recorded and blacklisted, according to the draft regulation.

The draft was posted by the CAC on Friday to solicit public opinions. It aims to better manage services provided by online programs, social media platforms and news websites so that the users could comment, reply, or use the mobile bullet chats according to law.

The draft says the platform providers should deny providing services to the users who fail to register with a real name. And, the draft asked the websites to examine users' comments before publishing.

It also requires the platforms to fix their technological loopholes for dealing with online replies and comments, and should hire sufficient content examiners.

The draft proposes to establish multi-tier management system to evaluate online comments. Those who publish comments that severely violate law should be blacklisted and suspended from publishing comments. They should also be banned from setting up new account for commenting and replying.

And, behaviors such as deleting, recommending comments, and interfering in the process to infringe on other people's legal rights, or, to seek illegal profits by misleading the public, are forbidden.

In 2016, the CAC launched a campaign to regulate problems that were emerging in comments section on the internet. Ren Xianliang, the then official from the administration, said that comments section is an important area where netizens express and exchange their ideas and opinions. Ren also stressed the responsibility of internet providers in regulating the comment section.

Global Times