Hu Shuli: Green Dam and Leaky Dam: Public Power and Social Rights
Written by Hu Shuli, editor of Caijing Magazine, on China’s ‘Green Dam‘ censorware:
It has been odd from the start: the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) issued a directive on the pre-installation of “Green Dam Youth Escort”, requiring all PC makers and marketers to comply by the end of June 2009 pre-installation testing, and make monthly report to MIIT on the number of PC sold and software installed. For those who miss the deadline for installation and reporting, make false report or refuse to report, MIIT will order them “to submit reports and make amends by new deadline”.
As the time was running out, the above directive was still an “internal document”. Finally 20 days later, MIIT issued the “official directive” on June 9. By this time, only 20 days were left before the deadline.
The directive elicited a few nods of approval for its avowed purpose of protecting youth from “pornographic and vulgar” content. However, the overwhelming response was negative. Some professionals say the “Green Dam” technology is crap and it makes PCs vulnerable to hi-jacking by hackers and spreading greater risks. Some commentators say the scope of filtering by “Green Dam” is so wide and the contents so vague, it comes across as excessive control; some analysts opine that the “Green Dam” software without going through open bidding may have violated “Government Purchase Law” and suspect that it enjoying favoritism, and so on. Business organizations summed up the problems as relating to “security, privacy, system stability, free dissemination of information and the right to choose by users.” (see article on Green Dam in the current issue of Caijing).
Origin: Hu Shuli, Caijing Magazine
