Chinese Activist Calls for Internet Boycott on July 1st

An interesting article by Stan Schroeder from Mashable, reports that from the 1st July and onwards all PCs sold in China must be shipped with Internet filtering software that blocks certain websites. The program is called Green Dam, which is a block of most major social networks and search engines. Green Dam is supposed to protect the people of China from online pornography, but it could also be used to monitor their online activities and block other, non-pornographic sites.

In protest to this action the Chinese activist Ai Weiwei requested all Chinese Internet users to stop all online activities on July 1st.

“Stop any online activities, including working, reading, chatting, blogging, gaming and mailing. Don’t explain your behavior,” he wrote on Twitter.

Ai is well known for his input into the design of the the Beijing National Stadium for the 2008 Summer Olympics, also known as the “Bird’s Nest,” a project he later distanced himself from.
It will be interesting to see how successful his protest will be since his online communication has been heavily monitored, censored and his site partly shut down.