China scraps mandated filtering software, at least temporarily, amid censorship complaints

China scraps filtering software mandate _ for now

BEIJING — China’s state media says the government will postpone enforcement of a new rule mandating all new computers be sold with a filtering software.

The rule was to go into effect starting Wednesday, but the official Xinhua News Agency said in a brief report late Tuesday that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology had decided to delay the plan. It did not say why or give any other details.

Authorities say the filters is needed to shield children from online violence and pornography, but analysts who have examined the system say it also contains code to filter out political material the government dislikes.