Green Dam Youth Escort

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Green Dam Youth Escort ( Chinese  绿坝·花季护航 , Pinyin Lǜbà · Huaji Huhang ) is a content filter - Software , in the People's Republic of China was developed. According to a ruling by the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology , it was initially stipulated that this software must either be installed on every PC sold in China from July 1, 2009 , or that the installation files were available on the computer or on a data carrier supplied with it ; this also applies to imported devices. Private users are not obliged to use the software, but schools and other public institutions are required to install it. On June 30, 2009, the Chinese government announced that it was delaying the introduction of the software, and on August 13, 2009, Li Yizhong , the minister of science and technology, stated that the software installation was by no means required for private computers. The Chinese government now does not require that the software be pre-installed on new computers, nor that it must be shipped with new computers.

function

The software runs on Windows and was developed by Zhengzhou Jinhui Computer System Engineering Ltd. (郑州 金 惠 计算机 系统工程 有限公司) with the participation of Beijing Dazheng Human Language Technology Academy Ltd. (北京 大 正 语言 知识 处理 科技 有限公司) developed. According to the manufacturer, the program is specially designed to filter pornography on the Internet , but it can also filter other content. Green Dam Youth Escort works with three filters:

  • an image filter that is supposed to block pornographic images,
  • a text filter that closes the open application and outputs an error message if a word or phrase from the program's blacklist is entered,
  • a URL filter that controls access to websites according to a whitelist and a blacklist.

Green Dam Youth Escort automatically downloads updates to the URL blacklist from an online database and collects user data.

criticism

Exemplary picture of pigs being fed which is falsely recognized and filtered out by the filter software as a pornographic representation due to the colors and shapes

Critics charge that Green Dam Youth Escort is not only used to filter pornographic images, but also for political censorship . After an article in the Epoch Times Chinese have hackers accessed the keyword list of the program and found that it contains only 2,700 keywords that are related to pornography related, but more than 6,500 including of a political nature, " June 4 ", " Tibet " and "" Falun Gong "". Chinese users of the software found that they injected a DLL into Internet Explorer that prevented the use of Freegate , one of the programs often used to bypass the Golden Shield project .

The software is also accused of functional deficiencies and security gaps. It has a mechanism that tries to recognize pornographic images in large areas with light skin tones, which means that, for example, images of pigs are also sorted out, while it does not recognize dark-skinned naked people. According to a study published on June 11, 2009 by Scott Wolchok, Randy Yao and J. Alex Halderman of the University of Michigan , Green Dam Youth Escort had serious security flaws at the time that made it possible to take control of the user's computer . Following this analysis, the manufacturer published a security update, but the authors of the study stated that further security gaps had not yet been fixed.

It was strongly criticized that all PC manufacturers worldwide should initially be obliged to only deliver devices in China together with Green Dam Youth Escort . In a letter to the Chinese government raised the US Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke and Trade Representative of the United States , Ron Kirk , the requirement to exclude the obligation. It is a serious barrier to trade. The European Commission asked China to postpone the introduction.

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei called via microblogging to an Internet boycott on July 1, and in a " Declaration of Anonymous Internet Users 2009 " was of " netizens announced an attack on all censorship".

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael Bristow: China defends screening software ( English ) BBC News . June 9, 2009. Retrieved June 27, 2009.
  2. ↑ Loretta Chao: China Squeezes PC Makers ( English ) In: Wall Street Journal . June 8, 2009. Retrieved June 27, 2009.
  3. ↑ Anti-porn filter software stirs up disputes in China ( English ) China Daily . June 11, 2009. Retrieved June 27, 2009.
  4. ↑ Discussion about mandatory Chinese filter software . c't . June 12, 2009. Archived from the original on June 15, 2009. Retrieved June 27, 2009.
  5. ↑ a b China: Holes in the Green Dam are to be plugged . Heise Security . June 16, 2009. Retrieved June 27, 2009.
  6. ^ The Guardian: China delays launch of internet filter Green Dam . June 30, 2009.
  7. ^ Matthew Taylor: China drops Green Dam web filtering system ( English ) The Guardian . August 13, 2009. Retrieved August 14, 2009.
  8. ↑ a b Jonathan Watts: China orders PC makers to install blocking software ( English ) In: The Guardian . June 8, 2009. Retrieved June 27, 2009.
  9. ↑ Maggie Shiels: US PC makers in 'stolen code' row (English) , BBC News . June 15, 2009. Retrieved June 27, 2009. 
  10. ↑ a b Scott Wolchok, Randy Yao, J. Alex Halderman: Analysis of the Green Dam censorware system . June 11, 2009. Retrieved June 27, 2009.
  11. ↑ Chinese Regime's 'Anti-Pornography' Software Targets Falun Gong (English) . In: Epoch Times , June 13, 2009. Retrieved June 27, 2009. 
  12. ↑ US government protests against Chinese filter software obligation . c't . June 25, 2009. Archived from the original on July 1, 2009. Retrieved June 27, 2009.
  13. ↑ Protests against China's filter software obligation are expanding . c't . June 26, 2009. Archived from the original on June 30, 2009. Retrieved June 27, 2009.
  14. ↑ CNN: China delays Green Dam Internet filter . July 1, 2009.