China pulls back on Green Dam

Posted by anthonykuo , Jul, 2009 @ 12:38 pm

green dam girl

For the last decade, China has been fighting – and largely losing – a running battle against the internet, and the free access to information it brings. Its recent insistence on pushing the Green Dam Youth Escort software, an internet content filter, marks its desperate, and ultimately futile pursuit for complete information control.

If it had succeeded, the Green Dam would herald a shift from control via remote servers to local censorship on each individual computer. Not surprisingly, this has elicited an international outcry, this time not only from democratic nations, but also from China’s own netizens, who have mocked the Green Dam with caricatures as seen above.

Now Beijing is pulling out, red-faced. They haven’t said why or for how long (or if they plan to revive it at all). Speculation includes reasons such as international pressure, threats of prosecution for trade violations for PC makers, and domestic ridicule of the software. Let the face-saving and ass-covering begin!

Tags: censorship, china, green dam, net neutrality, netizen, trade