I’m not always one to hop right on the “ooh, bad China!” bandwagon, because I think a lot of those feelings stem from our fear of China’s rapidly developing economic power. But this piece of news freaked me out a lot. Starting July 1st, all PCs shipped in China will be equipped with an Internet filtering program called Green Dam, as required by Chinese law. The filtering software supposedly blocks pornographic content, but it could be used to silence other voices on the Internet, too. For instance, Chinese activist Ai Weiwei (artistic designer of the Beijing Olympics Bird’s Nest) has already had his blog shut down by the government for protesting this mandatory filtering. For more information on “The Great Firewall of China,” please swing by the fantastic social networking blog, Mashable.
Rachel
