China backpedals on filtering software order

BEIJING -- China's authoritarian government has backed away from an order to load Internet-filtering software on every new computer after a major outcry by citizens used to the relative freedom of online life.

Legal challenges, petitions and satirical cartoons had been part of a broad grass-roots effort to scuttle the initiative since it was announced earlier this month.

A Ministry of Industry and Information Technology official told The Associated Press on Tuesday that Chinese computer users are not required to use or install the Green Dam Youth Escort software — though the software will still come pre-installed or be included on a compact disc with all PCs sold on the mainland from July 1.

"The use of this software is not compulsory," said the official, who would not give his name as is customary with Chinese officials.

Executives from the company that created the software had said earlier that it was possible to uninstall Green Dam but it was not clear until Tuesday that the government's new regulation would not penalize people who chose not to use it.

The change marked a small victory for a burgeoning anti-censorship movement in China. Internet users in particular have expressed growing frustration with official efforts to monitor and restrict online content. China's Internet has emboldened public opinion and given citizens the tools they need to mobilize around a cause, such as exposing corruption or halting a project believed threatening to public health.

Although the government says the software is aimed at blocking violence and pornography, users who have tried it say it also prohibits visiting sites with discussions of homosexuality, mentions of the banned Falun Gong spiritual group and even images of pigs because the software confuses them with naked human bodies, according to Hong Kong media reports.

Many Chinese Internet users have mercilessly mocked the software, which is already available as a free download.

Creative critics have posted at least a dozen variations of the "Green Dam Girl," imagined as a busty Japanese manga-style cartoon character in an army cap and a mini dress who totes a bucket of soy sauce — considered a disinfectant — for cleaning up dirty websites. One such online image has the caption "Big Brother is Watching You" scrawled in the background.