China is still going forward with its plan to require that all PC manufacturers pre-install Green Dam, software purportedly meant to shield children from porn online, on all computers sold in China. In reality, Green Dam is a deeply flawed software with "serious security vulnerabilities" that would allow the Chinese government to block an array of websites and monitor what the Chinese People are viewing online.
With the July 1st deadline quickly approaching, the Obama Administration finally took action … sort of.
Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and trade representative Ron Kirk sent a strongly worded letter of protest, the contents of which have not been made public, to the Chinese government. The letter framed the dispute as a trade issue and complained that American companies were not given enough time to comply with the Chinese demand.
The letter even suggested that the Chinese plan violates World Trade Organization rules and insinuated that the US might complain directly to that international body about the new censorship requirements.
And although some heralded this as a bold shift in policy initiated by the Obama Administration, all I see is one tepid move in support of liberty abroad. But approaching authoritarian regimes like China and Iran with somewhat scathing rhetoric and formal protests accomplishes nothing and in the end leaves the citizens of these despotisms out in the cold.
The recent upheaval in Iran demonstrates that totalitarian governments regard open-access to the web as a defining threat to their power. Shamefully, Western corporations are often complicit or actively cooperative in this censorship.
Rather than sending strongly worded letters to the Chinese government, the Obama Administration should make global cyber liberty a priority and work with American corporations to limit their cooperation with authoritarian regimes.
If reason fails, the Obama Administration should move to impose harsh penalties on American corporations facilitating censorship abroad.
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