China Scales Back Software Filter Plan

BEIJING — Chinese officials retreated on Thursday from a plan to install so-called anti-pornography software on every computer sold here, saying instead that Internet cafes, schools and other public places must use the program, but that individual consumers will be spared.

The industry and information technology minister, Li Yizhong, said the notion that the program, called Green Dam/Youth Escort, would be required on every new computer was “a misunderstanding” spawned by poorly written regulations.

The ministry order, first issued last May 19, had stirred an outcry from Chinese Internet users and foreign computer manufacturers alike, arguing that the software ran counter to China’s proclaimed goal of creating an information-based society.

The United States warned China that the installation requirement could be seen as a violation of world trade regulations.

Although the government insists that the program is meant to shield children from online pornography, its filter — automatically updated by the government — targeted many topics with political overtones. Free-speech advocates said that the program was a government attempt to extend its control of political opinions into people’s living rooms.

The information ministry previously had suspended the Green Dam pre-installation mandate on June 30, one day before it was to take effect, saying that computer makers needed more time to accommodate it in their manufacturing.

The Thursday statement by Mr. Li appeared to make that suspension permanent. Mr. Li said the government would neither require the program to come pre-installed on new computers or force computer makers to include the program on a CD with optional software.

A few Asian computer manufacturers, led by China-based Lenovo and Taiwan’s Acer, nevertheless include the software on computers sold in China.

Although Mr. Li’s concession is a step backward for the Green Dam program, the software remains mandatory in schools, Internet cafes and other sites used by scores of millions of people. The government already takes extraordinary steps to monitor computer use in Internet cafes, which remain common in a nation where owning a computer remains a comparative luxury.

China has sought to increase government control over ordinary people’s use of computers in recent months. The government has systematically blocked ordinary citizens from viewing foreign-based websites like Facebook, Flickr and YouTube that sometimes include comment critical of the government.

Domestic websites with political content also have increasingly been censored or blocked. Experts are divided over whether the increased censorship is a temporary measure in a year filled with sensitive events, including the coming 60th anniversary of modern China’s founding, or is a permanent attempt to clamp down on unapproved speech.

The government recently proposed a requirement that all users of online chat rooms and bulletin boards use their real names when posting comments, a move that would stifle the sometimes-freewheeling debate on many sites. Until now, government censors have played a cat-and-mouse game with anonymous Internet users who posted comments that flout approved positions.