China Defers Green Dam Deadline At Behest Of PC Makers

China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's Li Yizhong said Tuesday that Beijing decided to defer the Green Dam software mandate after computer makers demanded more time for the massive undertaking of equipping all PCs sold in that country with Web filtering software.

A Chinese government directive, first issued in May, required that all computers sold in China come preinstalled with Web filtering Green Dam software by Wednesday. However, the mandate has left computer makers such as Dell, IBM and Hewlett-Packard unprepared to meet the July 1 deadline for compliance, which would have required the vendors to conduct an extensive overhaul of their computers sold in China.

Consequently, the directive has galvanized government agencies and industry groups to persuade China to abandon its July 1 deadline.

Earlier this month, two U.S. trade officials, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke and U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, sent a joint letter to China's MIIT and Ministry of Commerce, urging China's leaders to revoke the Green Dam requirement. Among other things, the letter cited that the Green Dam mandate could pose significant trade barriers that could violate terms established by the World Trade Organization.

The Chinese government said in the past it had no plans to waver on the July 1 deadline, contending that the Green Dam software was necessary to protect children and youth from pornography, violence and other potentially harmful images on the Internet.

However, in addition to porn, initial tests indicated that Green Dam also filters benign content such as Johnny Depp, Garfield, Paris Hilton and roast pork, according to a Reuters report.

Trial runs of the software have shown that the Chinese-developed Web filtering software has fundamental flaws that have blocked images such as a film poster for the cartoon cat Garfield, dishes of flesh-colored pork, and a close-up of Johnny Depp's face.

Green Dam's developers have not revealed how the software scans for inappropriate images. However, computer experts estimate that the filter likely uses color and form recognition to detect and block images classified as obscene, which could possibly explain that the blocked images seem to contain orange or fleshlike colors, Reuters reported.

But failing to adequately filter porn is just one of Green Dam's apparent flaws, according to reports. Among other things, the Web filtering software also contains flaws that could allow the Chinese government to monitor the online behavior of its citizens, or block users' access to certain Web sites deemed politically controversial, such as sites containing information on Tibet or the spiritual practice of Falun Gong.

For example, gay rights groups have contended that censored words blocked by the Web filter, such as "gay," could become a huge impediment to gay health sites and AIDS education.

Security researchers have also found security holes could allow external hackers to direct users to malicious Web sites or inject malicious code on their computers designed to steal personal and financial information or otherwise take over their PCs.

Another setting allows Green Dam to take screenshots of sites visited by the user -- that include bank and other personal accounts -- and then store them up to two weeks. Those stored screenshots could potentially be used by hackers to gain access to financial and personal accounts.