According to Wall Street Journal (June 8, 2009), the Chinese government has required international PC makers to equip their PC shipped to China with filter software from July 1 onward.
The new software, known as ‘Green Dam-Youth Escort', would link PCs with an updated database of banned sites and block access to those addresses. Such kind of control could give government censors unprecedented control over how Chinese users access the Internet.
The government says the effort is aimed at protecting young people from ‘harmful' content. However, foreign industry officials who have examined Green Dam say that personal information could be transmitted through the software and that it will be difficult for users to tell what exactly is being blocked. Moreover, the software could cause PCs in China to malfunction, and could make them more vulnerable to hacking.
In the past, the internet censorship practices operate mainly at the ISP, data center and content provider levels, netizens can access blocked sites by proxy servers. The ‘Green Dam' software is a new monitoring mode.
Full report at WSJ.
Rebecca MacKinnon pointed (via twitter) to the official website of ‘Green Dam-Youth Escort' [zh]where you can download the software.
[...] The URL says it all, http://advocacy.globalvoicesonline.org/2009/06/08/china-green-dam-pc-filtering/ [...]
posted on June 8th, 2009 at 2:00 pm - #17466What a mold,especially for kids, totally unbelievable.
posted on June 8th, 2009 at 6:19 pm - #17471I wonder where that is going to lead these people.
yap, and even if the software was clean when the manufacturer installed them, you never know what kind of spyware would be installed automatically when it got update; even if one uninstall the filter, the spyware might still be active. so it is not only dangerous in terms of info control, it can be developed into a CCTV, watching an individual all the time.
posted on June 9th, 2009 at 4:27 am - #17482[...] “HUA Ji Green Dam” today? UMICH: Technical Analysis of the Green Dam Censorware System Global Voices：China Green Dam PC filtering The Wall Street Journal: China Squeezes PC Makers Danwei: Is the Green Dam filter experimenting on [...]
posted on June 13th, 2009 at 4:33 am - #17532The user interface of this software contains some pics which were assumed taken from the site Hope Garden | BSD Medical.
posted on June 15th, 2009 at 7:20 am - #17555Check out the banner of this pic:
http://i2.sinaimg.cn/IT/2009/0610/200961002255.jpg and the website of Hope Garden, you will find it out.
[...] On June 10th, the central propaganda department issued a notice reminding all the media to report positively on Green Dam, Youth Escort, the filter and spyware to be installed in all PCs sold in China. [...]
posted on June 15th, 2009 at 6:00 pm - #17566How can there be censorship when end users aren’t even required to install or run this software?
“preinstall” in Chinese means “bundle”. The end users were never reuqired to install or run Green Dam.
Take this 6/12 ZDNet article citing WSJ:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=19688
As to what Green Dam will filter, it is configuable by the user. How can this be twisted into censorship is beyond me – perhaps anti-sinoism?
posted on June 20th, 2009 at 4:21 am - #17676[...] China: Green dam PC filtering (advocacy.globalvoicesonline.org) [...]
posted on June 22nd, 2009 at 3:30 pm - #17804[...] China: Green dam PC filtering (advocacy.globalvoicesonline.org) [...]
posted on June 22nd, 2009 at 6:17 pm - #17807[...] reaction to a series of internet censorship policy, in particular the introduction of Green Dam, a declaration has been circulated on the net in the past two days calling netizens to express and [...]
posted on June 24th, 2009 at 5:48 am - #17919yeah! everything against china is anti sinoism,We must always kowtow to the great leader ehe! the greater collective,or else its anti sinoism…Talk about choices.
posted on July 1st, 2009 at 11:27 am - #18408[...] in June, the Beijing government required international PC makers to equip their PC shipped to China with a filter software called “Green Dam-Youth Escort” by July 1. The plan was finally dropped as the internet public opinion has strong reaction against [...]
posted on September 13th, 2009 at 7:18 am - #19990[...] in June, the Beijing government required international PC makers to equip their PC shipped to China with a filter software called ‘Green Dam-Youth Escort’ by July 1. The plan was finally dropped as the internet public opinion has strong reaction against [...]
posted on September 14th, 2009 at 3:48 pm - #20002[...] in June, the Beijing government required international PC makers to equip their PC shipped to China with a filter software called “Green Dam-Youth Escort” by July 1. The plan was finally dropped as the internet public opinion has strong reaction against [...]
posted on September 21st, 2009 at 4:36 pm - #20138