China Backs Off 'Green Dam' Filter

By Tom Dunlap

So after months of stern warnings from the Chinese government, a controversial Internet filter got an 11th-hour reprieve today.

As the BBC reported:

China is to delay a controversial plan requiring all new computers sold in the country to be equipped with an internet filtering software, state media says.

The filter, called Green Dam Youth Escort, was to have been required from Wednesday, but the industry ministry said computer makers needed more time.

Its planned rollout sparked widespread disapproval inside China, legal challenges and criticism from overseas.

Officials say it is designed to shield children from pornography and violence.

However, free speech activists have criticised the software plan as an attempt to tighten the Chinese government's already strict controls on internet usage.

A report by China's official Xinhua news agency gave no other details on the decision by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

I'm pretty stunned that the Chinese apparently listened to the outpouring of complaints over the Green Dam, from computer makers, Internet users, security experts, and many others. Maybe this is a step toward more Internet freedom for the world's biggest country (although India's population will surpass it at some point) but I doubt it.

The news sparked a ton of comments at Slashdot.org, many of them aimed at Sony, which is a popular whipping boy at the venerable online forum. Computer makers had said they needed more time for Green Dam, except Sony ...

who as reported earlier lacked the moral fiber to hold off installing the spyware, which reportedly is ridden [sic] with security holes and uses stolen code. Sony actually managed to ship ahead of the schedule.

Some of the other lively Slashdot comments included:

Well, Sony finally manages to get SOMETHING out on time. Too bad God of War 3 wasn't requested by an evil totalitarian regime to oppress its people.

And then there's this comment, which, as an editor for 20 years, warmed the cockles of my heart, and pretty much everywhere I have cockles, someone who has been known to actually pull out the big red Webster's New World, Third College Editon: