Beijing Continues Its Fight Against The Public Square In Cyberspace
Story from Mercury News
Damming the Web: Days before a deadline abruptly imposed by China, computer makers are scrambling to comply with an order to supply Web-filtering software with PCs amid concerns about what it might do to their reputations.Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Taiwan's Acer — the top three global producers — are asking regulators for details of the order that takes effect July 1 to provide Green Dam Youth Escort software with every laptop and desktop PC sold in China.
The conflict comes as Beijing launched new criticisms this week against search giant Google, which a foreign ministry spokesman accused Thursday of spreading pornography. Chinese users were unable to connect to Google's main site or its China-based service, google.cn, from late Wednesday into today. But spokesman Qin Gang, speaking at a regular briefing, sidestepped questions about whether the government was blocking access.
Government regulators say Green Dam must be supplied with every computer to prevent children from surfing the Internet for pornography. But technical analyses of the software — developed by a previously unknown Chinese company — have shown embedded programs to filter out content the government deems politically objectionable.
