Web users question rules on mandatory filter software
- Source: The Global Times
- [07:21 June 10 2009]
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By Qiu Wei
A ministry-level order concerning the inclusion of filtering software with all computers sold in China is garnering mixed reactions from PC manufacturers and raising questions as to its feasibility and whether the new law violates user rights. Some, however, have welcomed the measure as “beneficial to Chinese youth.”
The move will require all personal computers sold in China, starting July 1, to include software “aimed at blocking and filtering some unhealthy content, including pornography and violence,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said yesterday, defending the directive.
China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a notice last month announcing that PCs will have to include the Web-filtering software, called “Green Dam-Youth Escort,” pre-installed or enclosed on a CD.
An unnamed official with the ministry said yesterday that the move is aimed at purifying the online environment and protecting juvenile Internet users from pornography and harmful content on the Web, at the request of millions of parents, educators and students.
The ministry said the software will be free to use for the first year, as the government will pay for the development and installation, a campaign that is said to cost as much as 40 million yuan ($5.7 million).
Lenovo, China’s largest PC manufacturer, said it was aware of the policy.
“We are working on possible ways to install the program on our products and discussing some details with relevant departments,” Lenovo Vice President Liu Jie told news portal Tencent, adding that no timetable has been set to install the program on all the company’s computers.
Shandong-based PC manufacturer Inspur, however, told the Global Times it had already installed the software on its products.
Foreign computer producers apparently have to address the same issue.
An employee with Apple China, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the Global Times, “While dealing with Chinese official decisions, the company has to consult its headquarters in the United States for approval. But due to the particularity of the Chinese market, the company has no alternatives but to follow local rules.”
Software giant Microsoft said late Monday that the order “needs to be properly addressed.”
A company spokesperson said in a statement to AFP that “Microsoft believes that the availability of appropriate parental control tools is an important societal consideration for industry and governments around the world.”
“At the same time, Microsoft is committed to helping advance the free flow of information and encouraging transparency, deliberation and restraint with respect to Internet governance,” the spokesman said.
However, an anonymous source with a leading Chinese provider of network solutions doubted the feasibility of the requirement, as many local producers do not install any operating system on their products, to save money. Requiring the installation of the Green Dam means that they have to install an operating system now.
“A computer installed with Windows XP costs 500 to 600 yuan ($74 to $88) more than a bare one (one not installed with an operating system),” the source revealed. “Will the government cover the additional cost?”