Beijing has announced that all computers sold in the country must come installed with government-designed software to block pornography, starting July 1. Testing by experts shows that the software, Green Dam Youth Escort, is also programmed to censor certain Web sites, disable programs when users type sensitive words and track which sites citizens are visiting.
Big Brother would be proud. With all the technology our culture has submerged itself in, it’s easy to get caught up in the online craze – to show too much and sometimes say too little of substance. The government shouldn’t play internet police, but China says it can. Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Apple, all of which sell huge quantities to the Chinese government every year, need to refuse China’s demand.
Business and profit aside, the companies must realize this is plain wrong. An online petition was launched to protest Green Dam. The number of signers has reached only a little over a thousand, a relatively small dent in a nation of more than one billion, but the comments were openly critical.
One protester simply stated, ‘I don’t want to live in 1984.’ None of us do.
