Computers that don't meet the software’s technical requirements are excluded from the mandate, according to IDG. China in recent weeks ordered foreign and domestic computer 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.

And that's not the only country making such moves. Iran, with technology provided by European tech companies, has been monitoring, identifying users and blocking all manner of Internet communications, including from Facebook and Twitter, "which have played such a central role in the citizens' uprising there," notes the San Francisco Chronicle.

And that's not the only country making such moves. Iran, with technology provided by European tech companies, has been monitoring, identifying users and blocking all manner of Internet communications, including from Facebook and Twitter, "which have played such a central role in the citizens' uprising there," notes the Chronicle.

Ed Black, CEO of the Computer & Communications Industry Association, says his organization has been lobbying the Obama administration on these issues. However, he told the Chronicle that Western governments, including the United States, have not been paying sufficient attention to the dots. "There's a technological arms race between those forces seeking openness and mass communication, and those wanting control," he said. So far, he says, Western governments have been at best complacent.

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