China’s Web Filter Software Initiative To Continue
Posted on: Thursday, 2 July 2009, 10:20 CDT
Despite reports on Tuesday that China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology would delay its plans to mandate computer makers to bundle filtering software with all computers, officials say the initiative will carry on.
"The government will definitely carry on the directive on Green Dam. It's just a matter of time," China Daily quoted an unnamed source.
On Tuesday, Chinese newspaper Xinhua reported that the ministry would delay the initiative less than one day before it was scheduled to launch.
China intends to mandate the installation of the Green Dam Youth Escort software on all computers with the aim of protecting its citizens from offensive material, including pornography and violence. Critics claim the software also filters out dissenting political opinions on the Web.
"The pre-installation was delayed as some computer producers said such a massive installation demanded extra time," Chinese newspaper Xinhua quoted a ministry spokesman on Tuesday.
"The ministry would also keep on soliciting opinions to perfect the pre-installation plan," the spokesman said.
The mandate has been received with controversy from citizens, industry groups and officials in Washington, who said the initiative represented a possible trade barrier.
Experts speculate that China’s move to back down from previous plans is the result of dissent from a large amount of its population.
Susan Shirk, an expert on Chinese politics at the University of California, San Diego, told Reuters on Tuesday that the move to postpone the mandate was impacted largely by public opinion on the Web, saying that China’s Communist leaders “watch public opinion very carefully.”
"There's a very dynamic interaction between the Party authorities and the Internet public."
"What will happen is that some PC manufacturers will have it included with their PC packages sooner than the others," an official told China Daily. "But there is no definite deadline at the moment."
The ministry said it would continue to make the software available as a free download for schools and public Internet access sites.
Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports
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