Well, it appears that Imagethief was overly optimistic about Green Dam Youth Escort's longevity. My original prediction was that it would be allowed to die and in six months no one would remember it. Apparently six weeks would have been closer to the mark. Today was the day from which computer manufacturers were to be officially required to include Green Dam Youth Escort filtering software with all computers shipped in China. Instead, after widespread resistance from computer users, computer manufacturers, and most media organizations not called "Xinhua", the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology decided to postpone implementation of the requirement indefinitely. Yes, technically it hasn't vanished (it will still be in schools and Internet cafes), but we're well into face-saving territory. The news emerged via Xinhua:

BEIJING, June 30 (Xinhua) -- China will delay the mandatory installation of the controversial "Green Dam-Youth Escort" filtering software on new computers, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said here Tuesday.

The pre-installation was postponed as some computer producers said such massive installation demanded extra time, said the ministry.

"The ministry would keep on soliciting opinions to perfect the pre-installation plan," a spokesman with MIIT said.

Imagethief expects that solicitation to take just long enough for everyone to forget this ever happened. It's also interesting that one third of the article is dedicated to the news that the implementation is delayed, while two thirds of it is given up to what might be best described as buffing the legacy of this idea. You need not read the whole thing; the two sub-heds tell the whole story. They are, "Safe, legal and trustworthy" and "Popular among parents". Enough said.

For such a spanning, industry-wide announcement, it sure didn't get much play on the ministerial website itself, being relegated into a larger "Q&A" on the wonders of Green Dam Youth Escort. I found it through a Google search for pages on Green Dam on MIIT's domain that had been posted or amended in the last week. Xinhua and many other mianstream Chinese publications delivered the news in similarly softened form. English language Chinese media was less charitable. The China Daily was surprisingly unsparing. But even they couldn't top the glittering, front-page treatment in today's Wall Street Journal Asia, above both the BP-China National Petroleum Company win in Iraq and Taiwan's opening to mainland Chinese investment. Further proof, one suspects, of the Western media's sinister plot to humiliate China.

Green Dam Youth Escort may have submarined as predicted, but make no mistake, this isn't over. The objective that drove it the Green Dam plan, the desire to "purify the Internet", still stands. All attempts are being made to wrap the demise of Green Dam in face-saving balm, but there is no disguising the thoroughly humiliating nature of the episode. Nothing stokes the fires of zealotry like a bout of punishing humiliation, and I'd expect to see that zealotry redirected in coming months in an attempt to justify the Green Dam initiative. The recent assault on Google may be a sign of things to come. PC makers may be able to breathe a sigh of relief now, but portals, video sharing sites, social networks, Internet cafes and others may be in for an interesting few months. Watch this space.

Update (July 2):

And, bang on cue: Campaign launched against Chinese Internet "cultural irregularities", via China Tech News:

According to Zhang Xinjian, deputy director of the Market Division of the Ministry of Culture, this campaign will focus on six main tasks, which include further purifying [the] social and cultural environment; cracking down on illegal cultural products and services; conducting special checks on recreational and entertainment venues; strengthening the management and supervision of netcafes; conducting special checks on the animated cartoon market; and strengthening the inspection on culture service providers.

I'm not saying these things are directly related, especially given the breadth of the campaign above. I'm just saying, expect more like this in coming months.

Previously on Imagethief:

See also:

 

Oh, yeah, and that Taiwan investment thing, too.