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Deutsch: EU beschuldigt China, das Internet zensieren zu wollen

On 25 June 2009, the European Commission condemned Chinese plans to enforce the instalment of the "Green Dam Youth Escort" filtering software on all PCs sold starting with 1 July. As an unprecedented decision, the Chinese authorities postponed the action although they declared their intention to continue with these plans in the future.

Quoting the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the official Xinhua news agency stated: "The pre-installation was delayed as some computer producers said such a massive installation demanded extra time."

The Chinese officials claim the use of the internet filter is necessary to stop access of children to pornographic websites but the European Commission believes that "the aim of this internet filter, contrary to what Chinese authorities contend, is clearly to censor internet and limit freedom of expression" and therefore urged China to postpone the decision and requested a meeting at the "technical level to better understand what is at stake."

The European Commission emphasised that "Media pluralism, freedom of expression and press freedom are underlying elements of European democracy" adding that "China's insistence that the Green Dam filter be installed in new computers proves once again that censorship takes place in this country."

Also that United States consider that China's plans might be in violation of the World Trade Organization. Researchers at the University of Michigan who examined the software said it contained serious security vulnerabilities which could lead to computers entering under the control of outside parties via remote access and stated that the software text filter blocked words that included phrases considered politically sensitive by the Chinese Communist Party.

China has a long history of blocking websites with politically sensitive topics such as the 1989 Tiananmen democracy protests, the Falungong spiritual movement or any type of criticism of the government. Recently, access to Google was temporarily blocked as the engine was accused of displaying links to "pornographic" websites among its search results.

Chinese censorship of Internet 'unacceptable': EU (26.06.2009)
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iAhA_CwXvHnRhZNjTcs...

China says Web censor plan to proceed: report (1.07.2009)
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j-iEAehsvfpZHVVK0X7...

EU condemns Chinese roll-out of internet censorship software (26.06.2009)
http://euobserver.com/22/28378