Beijing will recruit at least 10,000 “internet volunteers” by the end of this year to monitor and report to the authorities any "lewd" content they may come across , or Internet users they find to be exhibiting "uncivilized behavior" when surfing on the Internet, the Capital Civic Enhancement Committee Office (CCECO) said.
The CCECO and the Beijing Internet Management Office, a local Internet regulator, will supervise the volunteers. Both regulating bodies will also have the real identities of all volunteers.
The move by the Chinese local governments and Communist party branches is seen as an unusual admission of censorship and gives a rare view of the resources China uses to try to control the internet. The volunteers is in addition to the national government’s requirement that t every new personal computer sold in China is equipped with web filtering software.
The ministry of industry and information technology notified computer makers last month that they would be required from July 1 to include Green Dam/Youth Escort – a programme developed under commission by the government – with every new PC.
Testing by independent software engineers has found that besides protecting children from pornographic content, Green Dam is also capable of filtering and blocking political content, and carries serious security risks for those who install it.
Beijing’s requirement has also created legal worries among foreign PC makers like Dell and Hewlett-Packard. .
Solid Oak, a Californian software company says Green Dam infringes its intellectual property rights, for copying the code in its Cybersitter, a programme allowing parents to block pornographic and violent content when their children use the internet. Solid Oak announced that it has already sent “cease and desist” letters to Hewlett-Packard and Dell, warning them that the software company would file charge for damages claims if they installed Green Dam.
Brian Milburn, Solid Oak chief executive, said Chinese groups opposed to Beijing’s move had offered assistance in taking legal action in the country. “If our code is being used to censor a country, we stand up to things like that,” he said. His company was considering whether such action was feasible.
“If we can’t stop [HP and Dell from shipping], I guess the only way to resolve this would be an interim licensing agreement,” he said.
