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Outrage over bid to tame Web

By Cui Xiaohuo and Cui Jia (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-06-18 07:51

Pupils at Kuiwen Experimental Primary School in Weifang, Shandong province, surf the Internet on computers installed with the Green Dam-Youth Escort software in class last Thursday. [China Daily]

The intention to protect children from porn and violence may have been sincere, but China's attempt to roll out a hi-tech Internet filtering policy has certainly proved controversial.

An edict from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) that all new personal computers sold or made in China from July 1 must feature its Green Dam-Youth Escort program sparked heated debate in the media and on Web portals across the nation.

And experts have predicted the directive could be revised or scrapped, with Shen Kui, deputy dean of the school of law at Peking University, saying that he believed the government had found itself in a "very uncomfortable position".

Some PC manufacturers and other firms in the IT industry are already refusing to pre-install the software, for which the government has paid 41.7 million yuan ($6 million) for a one-year lease of the program.

Some citizens cautiously welcomed the policy to help create a porn-free environment, but others chose to publicly vent their frustrations after discovering that content deemed politically sensitive or homosexual would also be targeted by Green Dam, or luba, which shares the same pronunciation with "filtering bully".

The anti-Green Dam website, lssw365.org, launched on June 11, has already received 10,400 comments from netizens, most of whom seem to be using their real names.

Related readings:  Green Dam filter software 'not compulsory'  Anti-porn filter software stirs up disputes in China  Scholars skeptical of anti-porn filter software  Computers to pre-install Internet filter

"The Internet is a platform with freedom of expression and a vital pool of information for the public," wrote a netizen under the tag of "Professional 50 Cents" during an online chat with media experts on the People's Daily website on June 10. "But with Green Dam in sight, a lot of people are more worried about what kind of freedom and access they will have when the content is filtered."

Another netizen tagged as "Jzyg" and an advocate for homosexuals on Global Voices, a non-profit organization for worldwide bloggers, blasted the software as a "scumbag (that) equalizes homosexuality with obscenity and violence".

He said once Green Dam is installed, it will filter out all websites with homosexual content, including Aibai, Idanian and Aifufu, popular websites for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in China.

Websites that contain key words such as "homosexual", "gay" or "lesbian" will automatically be flagged up by the software, as will sites with a lot of images containing "skin color" or same-sex intimacy.

Critics have also been creative and posted online around a dozen variations of the "Green Dam Girl", usually a busty Japanese Manga-style character in an army cap and mini dress who totes a bucket of soy sauce - considered a disinfectant - for cleaning up dirty websites.

Lawyers in Beijing and Shanghai have also drawn up domestic petitions and legal challenges against the filtering plan.

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