So, if the GFW of China is not effective in blocking out sensitive and “inappropriate” materials on the Internet, what else will work?
- Green Dam Youth Escort software
- 10,000 Volunteers that Monitor Internet Content
- Spiritual Civilization Office
- China Internet Illegal Information Reporting Center
These are just some of the known methods that the government uses to control the information on the Internet.
The recent decision by the Chinese government to install preinstall censorship software on all computers sold in China has enraged the Chinese Internet users as well as computer makers.
According to the New York Times
“Many people say the software, called Green Dam-Youth Escort, will be used to block Web sites with politically unacceptable content, even though officials insist that the software will be used primarily to censor pornography…trade groups representing major American computer makers, including Hewlett-Packard and Dell, which have significant market shares in China, have been asking the Chinese government to rescind the requirement that Green Dam be preinstalled on computers but have seen no change in the Chinese position.”
My thoughts:
The more you exercise your control over the people, the more the people will exercise their innate will to break free; this is a snow ball effect and the only solution is to strike a balance that is satisfactory to both sides. If the government wants to protect the moral of its citizens by blocking pornagraphy on the Internet, it should trust its citizens by showing we are confident of our people, we will let them decide what they want to see and not see. Basically, if someone wants to watch porn really bad, no software or hardware is going to block them. By telling its citizens “we don’t trust you, and we want to treat you like little kids by preinstalling software that is going to control on you access the Internet you paid for” then no wonder computer users are angry.
If the government want to protect the underage kids then I want to ask “Isn’t that the job of the parents?”
More thoughts:
The money spent on these censorship software and hardware could be used for other more meaningful purpose like building schools, improve infrastructure, improve medicare, etc. It’s funny how what the people really want from the government is insufficiently provided while what the people don’t want or care from the government is done in overabundance.
I realize:
I realize China had make great progress in making more information free and available to everyone but sometimes stupid stuff like this Green “Damn” Dam just makes you mad and ask what are they thinking? Although I’m a foreigner in China, I still pay taxes and the tax money goes into developing these crazy useless software is just maddening.
Let’s Hope:
Let’s hope the government doesn’t make it mandatory for us to install the software inorder to go online. That would be scary.
I can always wipe out that malware — so derogatorily called by Chinese netizens as Green Bully — from my hard drive. I guess Chinese people’s ingenuity will break any blockers like this.
I agree, money should be better used elsewhere — but that’s not what they care. They care more about escorting the mysterious creature in the river.
By the way, those “Volunteers” are dubbed 五毛 — because they allegedly earn five Jiao for saying something politically correct.