“Apple appears to be exempt from China’s mandate that a controversial Internet filtering program be shipped with all computers sold in the country,” Owen Fletcher reports for IDG News Service.
“Computers that do not meet the software’s technical requirements are excluded from the mandate, according to one PC maker,” Fletcher reports. “China in recent weeks ordered foreign and domestic PC makers to package Green Dam Youth Escort, a program that blocks pornography and some sensitive political content online, with all computers sold in the country.”
Fletcher reports, “Green Dam is not being bundled with machines at the Apple store in Beijing because the software has no Mac version, a sales representative said Friday… Apple will still pre-install the program in accordance with the government mandate if a Mac version comes out, the sales representative said.”
“It is unclear if Green Dam will be released for other operating systems,” Fletcher reports. “A service representative at a sister company to Green Dam’s main developer, Jinhui Computer System Engineering, said the company is testing the software on non-Windows platforms and will release an updated version if compatibility is added for other OSes.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: There’s one developer who can take forever to release the Mac version. Freedom-loving Chinese: Get a Mac.
