Damn Green Dam

ARTICLE: China backtracks on PC software filters, By Kathrin Hille, Financial Times, August 13 2009

Old bit of mine: everybody wants connectivity, but they don't want all forms of content. And so the instinct is to try and control it. By and large, the first generation is okay with the walled garden approach (e.g., AOL). But the kids? They're a real problem. Having grown up in the networked world, they chafe mightily at restrictions.

China's Great Firewall is a first-generation attempt at a walled garden. For now, plenty of Chinese internet users barely know it's there, but as more and more--typically young--people bump into the walls of the Matrix, they pursue workarounds.

China's next-generation solution was this Green Dam software that was supposed to be installed on all PCs, so there would be control inside as well as at the great router in the sky. But the pushback was significant, not so much from the Chinese people as from the outside world, which simply didn't want to go so far as Beijing did on the subject because it was a hassle and could have easily led to security problems. Plus it just went against our nature on these things.

Do I expect China will continue to throw resources as this issue (blocking certain "bad" content)? Yes. Will pornography will the usual excuse? It's a good one, mind you.

So the battle rages on, even as this setback to state control suggests China may be moving to a tipping point faster than many imagined.

So a good sign.

(Thanks: John S. Weitzer)

Comments

[Jeff Spangler]

I wonder how the growth of the Christian relgion in China might impact the future of that nation? With the house church movement and the number of Christian missionaries that are teaching English in Chinese universities, I think there is the potential for significant 2nd and 3rd order effects (such as a growing pro-West and favor for liberal democracy. I think that shift could go a long way to brining China solidly into the core. I think the regime will change soon, hopefully peacefully.

[Robert Armstrong]

Plus they stole the software for Green Dam and the company they stole it from wasn't all that happy about it. This limits their ability to put Green Dam on computers made outside of China. At least until they confess and settle up.