Beijing authorities said Tuesday that the city's users of Twitter-like microblog services who fail to register with their real names by March 16 will be banned from posting on those websites, Xinhua reported.

The ultimatum came nearly two months after the city introduced guidelines mandating real-name registration for microbloggers, according to a meeting held Tuesday by the Beijing Internet Information Office (BIIO).

Starting from March 16, unregistered users will no longer be able to post or repost on microblogging websites, though still able to read other people's postings, according to the announcement.

As per the guidelines, new users have been providing their real identities when registering microblog accounts since Jan. 1.

After Beijing's initiative, several other Chinese cities, including Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, adopted similar rules, as authorities believe microblogs help spread rumors and vulgarities.

Nearly half of China's 513 million Internet users frequent the microblog service to gather news and spread views.

(China.org.cn February 9, 2012)

新华社周二消息，3月16日起，北京市未以真实身份注册的微博用户将不能在微博上发帖。

北京市互联网信息管理办公室周二召开的会议透露，这是该市出台微博用户实名注册管理制度近两个月以来的最后通牒。

报道称，3月16日起，未实名注册的用户将不能在微博上发言﹑转贴，但是可以浏览他人的帖子。

依照该管理规定，1月1日起，新的微博用户注册时使用的都是真实身份。

有关方面认为，微博助长了谣言和粗俗信息的传播。因此，继北京之后，上海﹑广州﹑深圳等城市也将施行类似规定。

据悉，中国5.13亿网民中有一半的人常常使用微博来获取新闻﹑散布观点。