Beijing government has recently required all Internet service providers (ISPs) and data centers to install a software called Blue Dam in all their servers. According to todays Taiwan Apple Daily News, the Blue Dam has to be activated by today (September 13) or the companies have to subject to punishment.
The Blue Dam software can be downloaded from here. The Blue Dam is developed by Shanghai Andatong Information Safety Technology Company and ccording to a report back in July 2009, the Blue Dam is 20 times more effective than the Green Dam as it is a combination of software and hardware.
The Blue Dam system is consisted of the following features: a graphic-filtering system, administrative-management system, internet-behavior manager, VPN client. The developer said that the business version of the Blue Dam can help company to stop their workers from visiting websites or hanging around in the Internet on non work related activities.
Back in June, the Beijing government required international PC makers to equip their PC shipped to China with a filter software called ‘Green Dam-Youth Escort’ by July 1. The plan was finally dropped as the internet public opinion has strong reaction against the filter.
Now that the Blue Dam is installed at the ISP level without much open discussion. Netizens will be subject to censorship and online behavior control with little self-awareness.
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(Via Global Voices Advocacy.)