China backs down on Green Dam program while the USA looks for ways around it
It would seem that not only has China baked away partially from its stance on the Green Dam Youth Escort Internet filter, but the United States is looking at ways to get around China’s filters all together.
it had been reported that China was going to force every computer manufacturer to install Green Dam Youth Escort filtering software on every computer sold in the country, but now it appears that the Chinese government is backing off of this position. According to The New York Times, the Chinese information technology and industry minister, Li Yizhong, said that the belief that the filtering software would have to be on every system sold to citizens was “a misunderstanding”.
While the filter will be required at Internet cafes, schools and other public places, it will not be forced into the homes of individual citizens. Several governments warned China that the requirement would violate multiple international trade agreements, and it is believed that was what caused Chinese officials to finally back off of the proposal.
Meanwhile, The China Post is reporting that the Voice of America, an international broadcasting service funded by the United States government, is testing a “feed over email” (FOE) system that will allow Chinese citizens to access blocked information via encrypted news feeds sent to foreign email accounts. While Chinese citizens traditionally use proxy services to get around the filters put in place by the Chinese government, the new FOE system would make it extremely easy for any one to get the information they want delivered directly to their computers.
With all of these defeats for the Chinese filtering system, Pan Wei, a professor in Peking University’s School of International Studies told The China Post, “China should be confident enough to be transparent and take criticism. It’s about time China loosened its control over the Internet.” He went on to say, “it actually damages China’s international image.”
As much as people would like to see the filters removed, it is unlikely to happen any time soon, but it is also doubtful that China won’t find a way to block the FOE system either.
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