China Backs Away from ‘Green Dam’ Censorship Technology
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Related subjects: Asia / Pacific, China, Media, Net Neutrality, Open Government, Press Freedom, Rights & Freedoms, Security & Surveillance, The Global Intercept Comments (3)
Amid a storm of protest from Chinese citizens, businesses, rights activists and foreign governments, China has suddenly halted its planned installation of a new enhancement to the ‘Great Firewall’ called ‘Green Dam’. In a statement the UK’s Guardian calls “terse”, the state-run news agency Xinhua reported “China will delay the mandatory installation of the ‘Green Dam-Youth Escort’ filtering software on new computers.”
The Green Dam censorship software was planned for installation on every new computer sold in China, allowing the government to monitor and control all internet traffic at the individual level. There appears to have been debate in the government as a result of passionate and even hostile criticism across China’s tightly controlled online community.
An estimated 300 million people in China are able to access the internet, driving an increasingly sophisticated “arms race” between Chinese government censors and the increasingly tech savvy and independently minded online population. Several incidents in recent years have brought the government’s aggressive censorship operation to the forefront of Chinese public awareness.
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An attempt to conceal information about the SARS outbreak led to accusations the government had endangered public health around the world, exacerbated the risk of the disease spreading and embarrassed the nation out of an overzealous reflex to avoid the embarrassment of SARS itself. The earthquake that killed tens of thousands in Sichuan led to a spontaneous nationwide online volunteer networking drive, that enabled citizens to contribute aid remotely or by traveling to the hardest hit areas to volunteer.
Increasingly, Chinese citizens are seeing the internet as a source of information, and censorship as a barrier to being well informed. Chinese businesses and universities have pressured officials to loosen aggressive controls on the flow of information, and there is increasing pressure from the international community to open China journalistically and informationally, for the benefit of its own people and to legitimize
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[...] recently delayed plans to implement a draconian filtering system based on a new “green dam” software platform. The government is believed to have been taken aback by the broad-based and persistent expressions [...]
[...] recently delayed plans to implement a draconian filtering system based on a new “green dam” software platform. The government is believed to have been taken aback by the broad-based and persistent expressions [...]
[...] risks and negative impact on business and foreign investment forced the government to back down. In July, we reported: Amid a storm of protest from Chinese citizens, businesses, rights activists and foreign [...]