After silencing the sites during the Tiananmen Square anniversary, China is again weaving a web of supervision over internet users. This time, it is all set install a ‘software’ to filter out malicious content.
China is set to make regulations requiring all personal computers sold in the country to include software that can filter out pornography and other “vulgar” content from the Internet.
However, protests are brewing over this decision, from Industry executives, free-speech advocates and many computer users.
The new mandate has instructed the computer manufacturers to preinstall the software on millions of new machines. Computer makers in the United States say it will be impossible to fulfill the requirement within one month.
A large chunk of internet users are apprehensive about the new software. They doubt whether it will act as a ‘spy ware’ rather than a software. They have reasons to think so, as China has a history of restricting Internet content which consists of information on Tibetan independence, human rights issues and other politically sensitive subjects.
Via: The New York Times
