Ministry made Green Dam a white elephant, critics say

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has come under renewed criticism over its handling of Green Dam Youth Escort, the controversial content-control software, as one of the software's co-developers said it had committed to the project after a cut-off of funding.

Chen Xiaomeng, general manager of the Beijing Dazheng Human Language Technology Academy, told The Beijing News yesterday that his company would continue providing users with free updates and maintenance even though the project would cost the company 7 million yuan (HK$8 million) a year.

Chen was quoted earlier by the Beijing Times as saying that his company had not received further funding for more than a year. The newspaper also reported that another developer, Zhengzhou Jinhui Computer System Engineering, based in Henan, could soon run into financial difficulty because of the ministry's funding cut, which could stop further updates and after-sale services for up to 20 million users.

Green Dam Youth Escort was designed to protect minors from information deemed as harmful, particularly pornography, but the ministry ordered all personal computer makers in May last year to load the software on all computers sold on the mainland. Although it later rescinded the order, it has been pushing schools, internet cafes and other public facilities to install the filtering software, which cost the public 41.7 million yuan.

The software has been subject to criticism over technical flaws and copyright infringement accusations.

Kang Guoping, a Beijing-based information technology commentator, said the company's goodwill towards the controversial project was actually damage control, as the revelation of the funding cut-off had cast the ministry in a bad light. He added it would be impossible for the company to carry on without outside funding if it cost 7 million yuan a year as it claimed.

'The ministry might not want to continue sponsoring the company over the Green Dam project, but the company's commitment to Green Dam could be rewarded through other ministry-backed projects.'