China Backs Off Filtering Software Mandate
Malaysia Looks to Pick Up the Baton, However
Last Thursday, Li Yizhong, the Chinese MInister of Industry and Technology announced that computer users will not have to use the Green Dam anti-pornography software filter.
"After you install the software, you can use it or you can decide not to use it,"
Minister Yizhong said at a news conference, the AFPreported.
Schools and Internet cafes still have to use the software, however.
According to this report in Radio Free Asia, the filtering software saves a screen shot of a user’s browsing history every three minutes, which can then be accessed by an outside server.
However, even as China backs off its Internet filtering plan, Reutersreported early last week that Malaysia is considering its own version to stop pornography.
As reported here, the Malaysian government's move flies in the face of the MSC Malaysia 10 Point Bill of Guarantees, point 7 of which is:
"Ensure no Internet censorship."
I guess point 7 was only a limited time guarantee.
Robert N. Charette is a Contributing Editor to IEEE Spectrum and an acknowledged international authority on information technology and systems risk management. A self-described “risk ecologist,” he is interested in the intersections of business, political, technological, and societal risks. Charette is an award-winning author of multiple books and numerous articles on the subjects of risk management, project and program management, innovation, and entrepreneurship. A Life Senior Member of the IEEE, Charette was a recipient of the IEEE Computer Society’s Golden Core Award in 2008.