For years, China’s government has kept the country’s Internet surfers on a very short leash. Censors attempt to block any content considered immoral, which could be anything from pornography to politically charged blog posts. Its latest plan is to order the installation of filtering software directly into all personal computers. While that software may shut Internet users out of certain corners of the Web, it could also leave doors wide open for malicious hackers, according to J. Alex Halderman’s students at the University of Michigan.
Renay, your story is not quite right.
"Preinstall" in Chinese actually means "bundle". Take this 6/12 ZDNet article citing WSJ for example:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=19688
The end users were never required to install or run Green Dam. As to what Green Dam will filter, it is configuable by the user.
Hi, it's me again. On second thought and having read over some background info on Renay San Miguel, I'd like to admit that this is a decent article on the whole Green Dam debacle, and clarify that my only beef is with the headline and with the simplistic introductory paragraph. But then again, trying to fit the whole of Chinese censorship into one paragraph would be a challenge for anybody. Also Mr San Miguel's article "Should Citizen Journalism Be Placed Under Citizen's Arrest?" makes good points about sensationalism and reporting truthfully in the mainstream media, so I hope he (and his editors) can continue to show them up here in the cyberworld.
To actually add something constructive in this comment, here's a link to the latest development in this story from the China Daily, the main English-language state-owned newspaper in China:
Green Dam filter software 'not compulsory' - http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009-06/15/content_8285962.htm
Your title has nothing to do with the content of the article. Does the Chinese government asking for the software to be patched constitute "scrambling"? Did you talk to any Chinese sources, and did they seem to be rushing to fix things? Also, your very first paragraph says "block any content considered immoral", which is an extremely simplistic way of looking at censorship in China and does your readers no favors except to reinforce faulty and outdated stereotypes. Please don't write stories like this in the future; either report them for what they are ("Interview with Professor researching Green Dam") or just point your readers to better analysis than you can give.
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China Scrambles to Repair Crumbling Green Dam
Posted by: Renay San Miguel June 15, 2009 01:26 PMFor years, China’s government has kept the country’s Internet surfers on a very short leash. Censors attempt to block any content considered immoral, which could be anything from pornography to politically charged blog posts. Its latest plan is to order the installation of filtering software directly into all personal computers. While that software may shut Internet users out of certain corners of the Web, it could also leave doors wide open for malicious hackers, according to J. Alex Halderman’s students at the University of Michigan.
"Preinstall" in Chinese actually means "bundle". Take this 6/12 ZDNet article citing WSJ for example:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=19688
The end users were never required to install or run Green Dam. As to what Green Dam will filter, it is configuable by the user.
Sincerely,
To actually add something constructive in this comment, here's a link to the latest development in this story from the China Daily, the main English-language state-owned newspaper in China:
Green Dam filter software 'not compulsory' - http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009-06/15/content_8285962.htm