Protesting China's Required Censorship Software

dinoyum writes "Censorship in China is nothing new, but the level of action taken to force Chinese citizens to comply has garnered global recognition. China marked the date July 1st, 2009 as the day manufacturers will be forced to install filtering software on all new PCs. While many have resorted to digitally lashing out against Green Dam, Chinese artist and designer of the famous Bird's Nest at the Beijing Olympics, Ai Weiwei has decided upon a different approach. '[He wants] a general internet strike — no work, no games, no email or anything else online — for 24 hours on the date the government plans to require censorship software on all new computers, he says, will be a quiet act of rebellion. Not coincidentally, July 1 is the 88th anniversary of the Communist Party of China. Though he posted the idea, Ai wants to leave the meaning to those who participate. "I gave almost no explanation about why I'm doing it," Ai said. "I just give the structure and people will fill in their own meaning. I don't want to be political first. I wanted to set up an act that everyone can easily accept, and then realize the power later. I want people to see their own power," he said.'"

Comments

Not mandatory anymore

[CosmicRabbit]

Due to all the international pressure and bad publicity gathered from the original move to mandate the installation of Green Dam on every computer, China backpedaled from the decision.
So it seems weird to me that this kind of protests are being organized. It would make a lot more sense to educate people about how to uninstall the dam(n) software out of their machines, or why people should not willingly accept to install it under the usual "think of the children" argument.
Having said that, it's a free country, and he can protest whatever he wants... Wait, no... I'll be back to you on that one.

Re:Green Damn Exploit

[Sir_Lewk]

Or how about you search it for us and not cite a search engine as a source in the future?

Oh boy

[Comatose51]

The Chinese government is not a government that takes well to public protests (Tiananmen Square massacre or the June 4th incident as the Chinese call it). I'm not saying these people should back down but I wonder if a better approach might yield better result. You have to take culture into consideration when dealing with politics. Culturally, the Chinese react very, very poorly to public confrontations, especially if one party will be humiliated by backing down. (Before anyone asks, I come from a Chinese family. This is experience from dealing with other Chinese, especially parents.) There's this concept of "face" and the Chinese will practically do anything to save it. Generally, to get compromises or change someone's declared public position you have to do it in a subtle way that doesn't threaten anyone's public image if he changes his position. Best of luck to him because he might actually succeed in changing the government's mind by showing them public anger, but the government will punish him simply for his public confrontation. This is actually quite heroic of him. He might be surprised by how many Chinese would care, despite his own blog post to the contrary, because of the very practical impact the Internet has on their day to day lives. The Chinese tend to be practical rather than idealistic.