Friday, July 3, 2009

China's Green Dam software: delayed



In case you haven't heard, here's great news from the technology / censorship front: China has delayed implementation of its sweeping Internet-control policy that would force all computer manufacturers -- even exporters -- to pre-install a software called Green Dam, ostensibly to protect children from Internet smut and cybercrime but is basically Censorship 2.0. It would allow the government to pre-block websites and, if necessary (so the rumor goes), hack computers. Of course, the latter is a worst-case, nearly unimaginable scenario, but it hasn't stopped commentators from imagining it and howling to the moon.

Anyway, Green Dam seems to be a nasty, nasty program, because if the Internet isn't for porn, why does the Internet exist? (???)

So, Internet evolves, watchdog evolves, I think that's what the PRC was going for. Lucky for consumers -- espeically filmmaker/artist Ai Weiwei, who was calling for a July 1 boycott of the Internet (right...) -- the policymakers realized that their goals were simply unrealistic, i.e. manufacturers need much more than two months' time to comply with such a ridiculous policy. Let's hope the censors scrap this idea altogether.

POSTSCRIPT: Under the why-am-I-doing-this file, three links from Sina vidoes: car models (girls), kissing marathon, skinny girl with big eyes.

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