Political Cues in China Web Filter

BEIJING - Web-filtering software that the Chinese government will require on all new personal computers includes data files containing political keywords and Web addresses, suggesting it could block more than just pornography, say people who have studied the program.

A notice sent to PC makers last month said they must include the software with all new PCs shipped in China as of July 1. Chinese officials and the main developer of the software have said the purpose of the software, called Green Dam-Youth Escort, is to enable parents to prevent their children from viewing online pornography. But foreign industry officials and free-speech advocates have criticized the plan as an effort by Beijing to expand its censorship powers.

Isaac Mao, a fellow at Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet & Society, said Green Dam data files have a broad range of political content, "much more than Falun Gong," the banned spiritual group.

Mr. Mao, who has seen the program's coding, said the words in the lists aren't necessarily blocked by the software. He said the blocking will appear inconsistent to users because the program includes mechanisms that activate and deactivate various functions. The software also appears to communicate with a centralized server, he said.

Shi Zhao, a prominent Beijing blogger, said he found data files with Chinese phrases such as "6-4 massacre" -- a reference to the Tiananmen Square crackdown on June 4, 1989 -- and "the celebration of Tibetan people."

Keyword documents in the software related to political content "are very big -- much, much bigger than those related to pornographic content," Mr. Shi said.

China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, which issued the Green Dam requirement, didn't respond to requests to comment.

Wang Jingcheng, deputy general manager of Beijing Dazheng Human Language Technology Academy Co., the developer responsible for Green Dam's keyword technology, declined to comment on reports the software blocks political content. He said earlier that it would block content "according to the law."

Bryan Zhang, founder of Jinhui Computer System Engineering Co., the primary developer of Green Dam, said the software serves no purpose other than filtering pornography. He said Jinhui compiled and maintains the list of blocked Web sites. "I know what is on my own blacklist," he said. Mr. Zhang declined to share the contents of the list of blocked sites, arguing that doing so would "promote" the Web sites.

Industry officials have also expressed concerns that the software could expose computers to viruses, or worse. Researchers at the University of Michigan, in a preliminary investigation, found programming errors creating "serious vulnerabilities that allow any Web site the user visits to take control of the PC," said J. Alex Halderman, a professor involved in the tests.

The government continued its defense of the software requirement on Thursday. State-run broadcaster China Central Television publicized a newspaper report that said a "vast number of parents and experts welcome the preinstalled green Internet surfing software."

But commentaries in prominent publications have expressed other views. On the Web site of the Communist Party newspaper, the People's Daily, a Peking University journalism professor, Xie Xinzhou, said blocking and filtering content shows the government is "treating all Internet users as children."

(the article was originally published at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124474567529507107.html)