One of Hong Kong's favourite online forums for heated debate and salacious rumours will soon force its users to reveal their identity before posting their opinions. The IceRed.com chat site is set to announce that users will have to register their names and contact information before they post, effectively removing the anonymity that has led to the site becoming rife with character assassinations and poison prose. The move will probably be seen by many as a sign the relatively unrestricted nature of the Hong Kong Internet is coming to an end, and that the laws of the offline world are successfully carrying their threats of punishment into the online realm. IceRed chief executive Tim Lam said the changes were designed to clean up the quality of the discussions by making people more accountable for what they say. 'We hope it will stem the number of abusive postings on the Web site and make our users more responsible. IceRed will not be a place where you can come and anonymously slag people off or post libellous material,' he said. Users will be able to use pseudonyms when posting, but IceRed will know who they are. Users can now post without identifying themselves. The loss of anonymity will be seen by some as a death blow to freedom of speech on IceRed, the most popular Web forum in Hong Kong, with 300,000 unique users every month. Discussion on the site, which caters for professionals, ranges from men trading information on where to meet prostitutes to whistle-blowers exposing company misdoings. IceRed has been served with three writs in the past year, the most noted from online trade-show services provider E-silkroad Holdings. The company alleged about a dozen libellous messages appeared on IceRed between October 2000 and March last year, when it was listed on the Growth Enterprise Market. E-Silkroad claimed its share price had been adversely affected, but the case stalled in the preliminary stages following a change of management. IceRed plays it cool - Business 2, Page 3