Green Dam Girl
I DON’T know if you have noticed in the news lately that the Chinese government have been hellbent on forcing all PCs sold within China to come installed with content-control software called Green Dam Youth Escort (绿坝·花季护航).
The software is designed to work with Microsoft Windows and its purpose is to, among other things, prevent people in China from accessing internet porn. The software is also known to be able to block over 6,500 politically sensitive keywords such as “4 June” (the Tiananmen Square massacre), “Tibet” and “Falun Gong”. It also apparently prevents the use of software used to bypass the so-called ‘Great Firewall of China’ – a large content-blocking and surveillance project operated by the Ministry of Public Security of the People’s Republic of China which routinely blocks access to BBC News, Wikipedia, Youtube, Flickr, Hotmail and Gmail.
The software apparently isn’t mandatory to use and can be uninstalled, but it has the Chinese up in arms.
In true Chinese satirical style, Chinese youths have come up with their own mascot – the Green Dam Girl – to express their anger at the Green Damn Youth Escort software (see image above).
If the Chinese government are to be believed, this is what the youth wants. They apparently want shielding from the murkier side of the internet. Surely they know that it’s impossible to completely prevent Chinese internet users from finding out about the Tiananmen Square massacre, Falun Gong, Tibet and what not. They deserve to know the truth. I’m British and I have a degree in History, so I’m well aware of the atrocities my country committed in the past. The British government don’t prevent me access to certain websites which highlight the shocking and gross abuses in the days of the British Empire. The Chinese government should open up their internet and let the populace judge their history accordingly.
But it’s not going to happen any time soon. To coincide with the twentieth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, the Chinese government ordered that internet portals and discussion forums/groups shut down their servers for maintenance between June 3rd and June 6th this year. Some of the websites forced to shut down temporarily referred to it mockingly as “Chinese Internet Maintenance Day” and one website posted a message saying “For reason which everyone knows, and to suppress our extremely unharmonious thoughts, this site is voluntarily closed for technical maintenance between between 3 and June 6, 2009…”
Jingjing
In an attempt to make internet censorship in China seem more palatable and cutesy, the Chinese authorities created Jingjing and Chacha – male and female cartoon mascots of the Internet Surveillance Division of the Public Security Bureau in Shenzhen. Images of the two appear on all Shenzhen websites and internet forums to warn users to behave as they would in the real world. Apparently Beijing police have done likewise but instead appear every 30 minutes on many of China’s top websites to tell users to behave.
It’s all a bit freaky if you ask me. I love living in a country which respects my right to access whatever I want to. Granted I can get in trouble for accessing certain websites, but I’m not actively prevented from doing so. It’s a freedom of expression everyone deserves.
I cannot imagine living in a country which blocks access to certain websites from time to time. I’m an avid Flickr user and if the government here blocked access to it I’d be furious. Same goes for Gmail, and above all, Wikipedia. I’d be lost without Wikipedia.
Good news about the Green Dam Youth Escort project, though – it was due to be rolled out two days ago but the mandatory pre-installation on new machines has been delayed until an unknown date.
Tags: China, internet censorship, technology
