China postpones net-filtering software deadline
JISHOU, HUNAN — China’s censors have postponed the deadline by which computer manufacturers must include a net-filtering application called Green Dam Youth Escort.
Green Dam was supposed to be installed on all computers sold in China as of tomorrow.
The requirement — made ostensibly to protect youngsters from pornography — resulted in an avalanche of protests from China’s Internet users, computer manufacturers and the US government. China’s netizens were prepared to boycott the Internet tomorrow as a protest.
[UPDATE July 1: Green Dam has inspired China's wittier netizens to create a manga-style "Green Dam Bitch." A variety of renderings of GDB can be seen here. A link in the accompanying article takes you to an image search for 绿坝娘 (Green Dam Bitch) on www.baidu.com, but the search will fail. Baidu, a homegrown search engine, will instead say, "The search result possibly does not conform to the related laws and regulations and content policies."]
Critics of Green Dam say the application is not only a security risk, allowing external computers access to users’ files and browsing history, but a probable means for Chinese authorities to censor the Internet.
Chinese authorities offered no explanation for the delay.
