Chinese Web Users Celebrate Green Dam About-Face - Yahoo! News

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Internet users in China celebrated the government's about-face on the Green Dam Web-filtering software with a party Wednesday in a Beijing café.

The event was originally planned to coincide with an Internet boycott planned for the day China had mandated that all new PCs sold in China must have Green Dam. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology abruptly postponed the July 1 deadline on Tuesday, giving the protesters an unexpected victory. The ministry did not say when, if ever, a new deadline might be set.

Artist Ai Weiwei, who organized the Internet boycott and the event, told Reuters, "This is a very rare example for the government to suddenly push back an important decision the night before it is due to be rolled out."

The ministry has said the Green Dam software, which was to be bundled with all new PCs, was to block pornography and violent content on the Internet. However, tests of the software showed it tagged images of Garfield the cartoon cat and roast pork as morally bad. With the images filter turned off, Green Dam returned links to soft- and hard-core pornography sites. Other tests have shown it is vulnerable to malware.

Green Dam can also be set to take snapshots of a user's screen and store them, leaving a potential trail for the government to follow, or for malicious software looking for confidential information.

Computer maker Sony moved to ship the Green Dam software with its products ahead of Wednesday's deadline, along with a disclaimer absolving the company from any problems.

Computer makers, the U.S. government, free-speech advocates, and Chinese citizens protested the Green Dam mandate. Dropping Wednesday's deadline indicates China is listening and having trouble censoring its citizens.

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