According to the New York Times:

China has issued a sweeping directive requiring all personal computers sold in the country to include sophisticated software that can filter out pornography and other “unhealthy information” from the Internet.

The software, which manufacturers must install on all new PCs starting July 1, would allow the government to regularly update computers with an ever-changing list of banned Web sites.
…..
Zhang Chenming, general manager of Jinhui Computer System Engineering, a company that helped create Green Dam, said worries that the software could be used to censor a broad range of content or monitor Internet use were overblown. He insisted that the software, which neutralizes programs designed to override China’s so-called Great Firewall, could simply be deleted or temporarily turned off by the user. “A parent can still use this computer to go to porn,” he said.

If it is true, as Zhang Chenming says, that the software can be turned off, then what is the point? If, as the Wall Street Journal reports, that the software just has to be included on a CD with new computers that can simply be thrown away, then what is the point? If the Green Dam software can simply be deleted, and of course will not be included with computers that users build themselves from parts, then what is the point? I assume that the major PC manufactures (Dell, Lenovo, etc.) will go along with this rather than lose out on the market, but this all serves to once again make China look bad regarding freedom of speech and information to the international community.

Also, before anyone gets very upset about this, I think it is worth reading Rebecca MacKinnon’s measured response to this:

As the week progresses I’m putting more of my money on the likelihood that the Green Dam filtering software edict will not get implemented, or efforts at enforcement will fade quickly. One thing Western observers need to remember is that China has a long history of edicts targeted at the tech, telecoms, and media sectors going un-enforced, quietly retracted, or morphed in practice into something very different. There was the failed attempt to ban encryption software back in 2000. There were multiple failed attempts to force Reuters, Bloomberg, Dow Jones, etc. to sell all their news exclusively through Xinhua. Both were defeated by strong lobbying by international industry groups. The effort to impose a real-name registration requirement on Chinese Internet companies died after fierce opposition from Chinese industry. And last year’s new requirement that online video websites in China must have majority state ownership appears to have gone ignored. Etc.

Further Reading
New York Times: China Requires Censorship Software on New PCs
Wall Street Journal: China Squeezes PC Makers
R Conversation: China’s “Green Dam Youth Escort” software
China Digital Times: Microsoft: China Web Filtering Raises Issues

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