Chinese officials appear to have retreated from their controversial plan to install an internet-filtering system on computers in the country.
The Industry and Information Technology Minister, Li Yizhong, said on Thursday that the notion that the Green Dam programme would be required on every new computer was ”a misunderstanding” spawned by poorly written regulations.
He said all public computers in schools and internet cafes must install the software – but the government ”respected the choice of individuals who do not install it”. He said: ”Those who overstated and politicised the issue, or even attacked China’s internet regulation, are irresponsible,” and added that pornography was the main target of the software.
His comments appear to signal the end of the protracted debate about whether the Chinese government would force the introduction of the controversial software.
Its initial plans met with fierce opposition when they were announced, with many internet users fearing that the software – which blocks pornographic, violent and politically sensitive content – would also be used to monitor behaviour, curb access to information and track users.
At first it appeared that the campaign, which was backed by the United States government, was gaining ground. However, last month, hours before the programme was due to be implemented, officials briefed that there would be a delay, but the plans would eventually go ahead.
Thursday’s announcement appears to make that suspension permanent, with Li saying the government would neither require the programme to come pre-installed on new computers, nor force computer makers to include the programme on a CD with optional software.
The government had argued that the software was necessary to clear the Chinese web of ”harmful content”. But critics said it was a misguided attempt to put the internet genie back in the bottle by a Communist party that now had to answer to about 300-million web users.
”Green Dam is a mini great firewall placed inside every personal computer,” said Michael Anti, an influential blogger, in June. ”The real logic behind it is that China is a big kindergarten in which even adults are treated as children that need to be ‘protected’.”
The plans had sparked fierce opposition. Wen Yuchao, a journalist and blogger who goes by the online name North Wind, said that more than 1 000 netizens had signed up to his campaign to ”climb” the firewall by signing up to proxy servers that bypass the government’s controls. And a group of bandit hackers, known as Anonymous, threatened to attack Green Dam if it was launched. — guardian.co.uk