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Censorship fail: China pulls back on Green Dam web censoring software
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Green Dam Youth Escort, the Chinese web censorware (ZDNet).
Chinese authorities have partially caved to pressure from PC makers and internet activists, announcing Wednesday that the country is postponing its requirement that PCs come equipped with web censoring software called Green Dam Youth Escort.
China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said it would delay the requirement for the software, which was supposed to be installed on all new PCs sold in China beginning July 1st, according to the Xinhua news agency.
A Chinese internet activist, Wen Yuchao of the website netease.com, said the pull-back was a "small victory for the forces of justice," according to the Washington Post.
"This was the result of combined pressure from domestic Internet users and an array of forces at home and abroad," Wen said.
Activists warned that the Chinese regime could bring back the censoring software at some point in the future, noting that internet activists alone could not force China to keep its internet open and free from censorship.
Pressure from U.S. companies and the Obama administration likely played a role in forcing the Chinese to back down.
The backlash against internet censorship in China and Iran shows the potential power of new web technologies to subvert repressive regimes.
In Iran, pro-democracy activists and protesters since the fraudulent election on June 12 have famously used social networking sites like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter to organize and share information with the outside world.
The U.S. State Department has spent millions of dollars in recent years to provide technologies that help Iranian activists avoid the regime's censorship controls.
“Our goal was to promote freedom of speech for Iranians to communicate with each other and the outside world. We funded and supported innovative technologies to allow them to do this via the internet, cell phones and other media,” former State Department Iran democracy program coordinator David Denehy told the Washington Times, according to Wired News.
The power of the internet to spread information and ideas can be valuable to advocates for human rights and democracy, but its power can also be used to clamp down on these activities.
Farhad Manjoo of Slate points to an item from NYTimes.com's the Lede about an Iranian government site called Gerdab.ir, where authorities posted photos of protesters and were asking citizens for help in identifying the activists.
"That’s right—the regime is now using crowd-sourcing, one of the most-hyped aspects of Web 2.0 organizing, against its opponents," Majoo writes. "If you think about it, that’s no surprise. Who said that only the good guys get to use the power of the Web to their advantage?"
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