China Protesters Organize Green Dam Boycott

Chinese Web surfers are asking fellow Internet browsers in that country to boycott the Web on July 1. The proposed one-day boycott is intended to put pressure on the Chinese government to back off its insistence that PCs sold in China include the Green Dam Web filter software.

Many Chinese Web users fear that the government is attempting to tighten its grip on the populace by using Green Dam to increase censorship in the communist country. The Chinese government claims that installing the Green Dam filter on computers is solely an effort to block pornographic Websites.

Ai Weiwei, a Chinese artist who helped design the Olympic Bird's Nest Stadium in Beijing, doesn't believe the Chinese government's claims and is calling on other Web users to boycott the Web for a day.

Ai chose the date to coincide with Green Dam's scheduled debut on computers, although it also happens to be the anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party in China. Ai believes that an Internet protest will be a safe way for Chinese people to protest, Reuters reports.

"Stop any online activities, including working, reading, chatting, blogging, gaming and mailing," Ai wrote, according to Reuters. "Don't explain your behavior."

The goal of the protest, according to Ai, is to protest Internet censorship.

Last month, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology ordered computer makers to add software that would censor Web activity. Called Green Dam Youth Escort, the Chinese government mandated that the software be pre-installed on any computer manufactured or purchased in China after July 1.

U.S. PC makers want no part of the Green Dam mandate, and Hewlett-Packard and Dell have both raised objections to the requirement, asking the Chinese government to drop the edict.

The Chinese government, however, is holding firm to its demands, U.S. companies say.

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