China said Thursday it will not force PC makers to bundle an Internet filtering program with computers sold in the country, backing down from a plan that stirred global controversy.
China will “definitely not” require the program, called Green Dam, to be packaged with all consumer PCs, said Li Yizhong, China’s Minister of Industry and Information Technology, according to a transcript of his statements on a government Web portal.
China originally ordered all foreign and domestic PC vendors to pre-install Green Dam on new machines or to include the software on a CD-ROM. That mandate, issued in May, was indefinitely postponed just hours before it was slated to take effect last month. At the time, the Chinese government said it delayed the plan only to give PC makers more time to comply, but it did not set a new date for enforcement.
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