Chinese Netizens Protest Google+ Real-Name Policy, as Users Get Booted

There are increasingly loud protests and pleas among Chinese users of Google Plus, Google’s new social media site, that the real-name policy is endangering users who might want to speak openly, without fear of state persecution.

As each day goes by, more Chinese users are getting deleted from G+ due to their usage of a nickname on the site. For some it’s a habit carried over from their Tencent QQ profiles, but for others it’s about having a degree of anonymity for safety’s sake, to be able to engage in debates on sensitive topics in a country where free speech on every subject is not possible.

Of course, G+ has had this real-name policy since day one, and it’s not unique to China either – yet the issue is causing some level of anger and confusion here among those who suddenly find themselves booted. Note that people who suffer having their Plus profile deleted do not lose their Google account or Gmail, which remain unaffected.

On a Google help forum, one Chinese netizen complained, in English:

I use the name [nickname] in many places, now everybody sees the name [nickname], they know it’s me. For example on Sina and Tencent Weibo. This is MY account. It’s only use by myself. I think suspended my [Plus] account without any notify is really offensive!

When someone does get their Plus profile deleted by Google, it looks like the image below, which was tweeted by @Takriz, a Tunisian blogger who got turfed out of G+ yesterday evening. Along with the photo, he tweeted angrily:

Google+ is shit for us who are forced to anonymity or pseudonymity because of totalitarian regimes. Don’t use it.

A Plea to Google

Hundreds of Chinese users on Google Plus – a significant number of the total now on there – have been circulating a plea to Google on this issue, written in Chinese by someone called ‘NewsinChina Tweeter’ – see the full text here. Almost inevitably, that user got booted from G+ over the weekend. The text contains the entreaty (my own translation):