'Blue Dam' internet filtering software to succeed 'Green Dam'

The ‘Green Dam’ internet filtering software got a lot of stick which was well deserved. It was rushed out. It probably contained a plagiarised list of sites. When deplagiarised it was effectively useless.

If at first you don’t succeed.

So the Shanghai Andatong Information Safety Technology Company is embarking on plans to manufacture Blue Dam, a filtering software project which, if it works, could be worth RMB800 million.

Andatong has announced its "Blue Dam Internet Pilot" software will function as a management system over all networks. Blue Dam comes in two modes, one that is purely software-based, and another that uses a combination of software and hardware.

The software and hardware combination version of "Blue Dam" is expected to have capabilities that surpass "Green Dam" by 20 times. This would not be difficult.

The business edition of Blue Dam includes a graphic-filtering system, administrative-management system, internet-behavior manager, VPN client and all those other good things that stops workers futzing around on the internet when they should be working.

The company’s website also claims that the system will be built with comprehensive protection and filtering systems "with powerful filtering and control functions to better guide and standardize users’ internet behaviors." Quite so.

The Epoch Times called attention to the original "Green Dam’s" filter glossary. The glossary contained over 2,700 pornographic keywords, but also over 6,500 non-obscene words which were connected with organisations which could be seen to be inimical to State policy.

"Green Dam" did not work and was postponed from July 1.

Now "Blue Dam" is being advanced as a possible solution. It will need to be seen how well it works and, importantly, whether it is an optional extra supplied on a disk — which was the case with "Green Dam" — or whether it will be preinstalled and unremoveable. If this were to happen the international outcry would be immense. No-one is sure how, when or whether this new development will be with us. Probably best not to hold your breath.