New Censorship Rule Worries the United States

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Jun. 22 – In a rare move, the United States has submitted a complaint regarding China’s new plan to tighten internet censorship by requiring that all PCs in the country be preloaded with web-blocking software.

Representatives from the U.S. embassy in Beijing recently met with China’s officials to discuss the issue.

“We view with concern any attempt to restrict the free flow of information,” Ian Kelly, a State department spokesman told the Financial Times. “Efforts to filter internet content are incompatible with China’s aspirations to build a modern, information-based economy and society.”

“We are concerned about Green Dam both in terms of its potential impact on trade and the serious technical issues raised by the use of the software,” Kelly added. “We have asked the Chinese to engage in a dialogue on how to address these concerns.”

Internet censorship has evolved into a trade issue between China and United States relations. In the past, the Chinese government required Yahoo and Google to follow government censorship policies to be allowed to operate in the country.

U.S. technology companies also think the censorship rules may be an indirect way of keeping foreign competition out of the Chinese market.

California software company, Solid Oak, recently filed a court case claiming that China’s newest web-blocking software is pirated from its own product.