Thursday, July 02, 2009
The mighty Green Dam of China, a computer software program intended to block pornography on Chinese PCs (and carry out other censorship and spying activities) is also capable of shutting out images of some of America’s favorite exports: Paris Hilton, Johnny Depp, and even Garfield. Whether intentionally or not, these pop culture icons have been deemed bad for the brains of China’s populace by the special filtering software that must be loaded on all new PCs sold in China after July 1.
Computer experts say the Green Dam probably works to block “obscene” content by using color and form recognition to zoom in on “potential expanses of naked flesh,” according to Reuters. But the interpretation of obscene has been made so broad that a cartoon image of Garfield can trigger the program to close all browsers on a PC and issue a warning message to users that they have accessed “harmful” content.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
China's Internet Porn Filter -- No Garfield Please (by Emma Graham-Harrison, Reuters)
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