Will Malaysia follow suit?

Green Dam about-face inspires hope

Public opinion has forced the Chinese government to backpedal on webfiltering – can online opposition drive other changes?

After weeks of rumours the Chinese government has finally confirmed it plans to drop the Green Dam web filtering system – the authorities will no longer seek the mandatory installation of the controversial software on new computers.

The decision is momentous and the government's claim it was all a big misunderstanding is a step towards admitting that actually it just didn't make Chinese citizens very happy. Li Yizhong, the minister for industry and information technology, made the concession. According to the Guardian report, "the notion that the Green Dam programme would be required on every new computer was 'a misunderstanding' spawned by poorly written regulation". At least he recognises that sometimes the government is inconsiderate, especially when disseminating (and implementing) its guidelines. In the case of the Green Dam Youth Escort, the original regulations were certainly uncompromising.

The episode provides a minor victory for Chinese netizens, a guarantee that the government won't lash out with forced implementation. It enables Chinese computer users to breathe a sigh of relief, and comes at a time when respite is most needed.

Unfortunately there have recently been many cases of netizen abuse but hopes have been raised because in several of these cases – like Green Dam – the government appears to have relented in the face of public opinion. Amoiist, the jailed blogger imprisoned in dramatic circumstances – he managed to twitter "i have been arrested by Mawei police, SOS" – was released earlier this week after nearly a month in jail.

Ai Weiwei, the renegade artist and advocate for political freedoms, was also released from a lock-up in Sichuan. He and others (also freed) had travelled to the area to support an activist working on behalf of schoolchildren who died during Sichuan's earthquake who had been put on trial. Of course these are all high-profile cases and others, like human rights lawyer Xu Zhiyong, remain missing, their status unknown. The founder of the Open Constitution Initiative, whose office was also disbanded, has not been heard from since the authorities visited his home in late July.

These are serious matters, but the about-face on Green Dam is a distinct ray of light, we can only hope that it will shed light on many other grey situations.

It's possible a number of manufacturers of computers in China will continue to bundle the Green Dam programme with their hardware. Asian computer manufacturers, like China-based Lenovo and Taiwan's Acer, apparently already include the software on computers sold in China – will they discontinue the practice? Did they really begin installing it? A friend, who's a digital researcher in Beijing, went to buy an Acer-branded laptop computer at a Beijing's technology markets at the end of July. His interchange with the saleswoman went thus: "I asked whether the Green Dam thing was over, she said she didn't think so, but they certainly didn't install it on their machines."

If they weren't installing the Green Dam, perhaps the battle was won much earlier and the delay merely served to give the government time to back down gracefully.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/libertycentral/2009/aug/15/green-dam-victory-bloggers