Google does deal with China: sells out on freedom of speech

[Konovalov]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...009397,00.html

Google has has engineered its search facilities to restrict Chinese people from searching for information such as Tibetan independence or the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.

and

The search terms blocked will include what are known as the "the three t’s and the two c’s": references to Taiwanese or Tibetan independence, the Tiananmen massacre, cult-related searches, which may trigger reference to the banned Falun Gong organisation, and information about Communist party supremacy.

This is disgraceful but I guess it wouldn't be the first or the last time that morals have been swept aside in the quest for greater market share.

[Mustang]

This is the typical reaction of a government that feels it can control the populace by ignorance. By making choice limited to only options pre-ordained by officials they only invite Rebellion and Revolution and to see Google give into this poor means of censorship is quite shocking as even now Google fights the Bush Administration for it and its patrons right to privacy as the Administration wants all logs of the recent searches done on Google's computers.

I hate having to agree with the popular comments on America from other countries but sometimes I am forced to agree like this one, it appears Google defends itself and its local patrons by shelling out words and meanings that it refuses to defend for others.


If you are in a bind with such kind of censorship, there are means for you to get by it without breaking any laws.

Foremost, everywhere you go is logged on a server computer by your ISP, some sites themselves log information on you such as your IP Address(with this they can find your name and relative location) What Operating System you have(This can serve as a Tactical Analysis of your machine for adware or malware attacks. And some even record what was in your Clipboard(CTRL+V) when you last copied text and pasted it.

To protect yourself you can GET A FIREWALL first!
STOP USING INTERNET EXPLORER! http://www.Mozilla.com FIREFOX is by far more secure then IE
use services such as http://www.anonymizer.com which acts as a defense buffer between you and the computer you contact in order to access a website. You just enter the url you want to go into and the built in browser in Annonymizer's site and then it asks for the page you want to view not your computer which means it leaves no traces from your computer and avoids any restrictions on your computer parent server.

Or if you really need to,
use a proxy, now there's a whole lot about the pros and cons of proxy and rather then flooding this forum with it i'll just direct you here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server

A proxy acts much in the way like Annonymizer except instead of browsing from another computer' browser like Annonymizer does, you use your own connecting your computer's browser directly with another(Which can be bad if your proxy is a Trap for you to connect and give access to your computer) but not a lot of proxies are like that, the majority are truely there to help other people so they can learn.

Hackers are people too, and one thing the majority of hackers agree on is that THE PEOPLE SHOULD KNOW THE TRUTH! All people have an inalienable right to learn so anything that deals with Education is usually untouched by a REAL HACKER now a script kiddy on the other hand is like a kid who found his dad's gun they are just playing with exploits in programming without knowing exactly what they are doing and can harm themselves and others so be awear a proxy is a risk much in the same as a Peer to Peer network is, but less likely to be targeted by a Hacker who is waiting in ambush or be any other kind of deception.

[TteFAboB]

State censorship can be bypassed. Censorship is stupid, hence the agents who enforce it are usually stupid people who can be fooled.

Maybe the most ignorant of all ignorant fellows will suffer from it, like many do in China already.

But Google itself can help, by pretending they are cooperating with the Chinese authorities they might become less suspicious towards Google with time, then Google can secretly support censor-bypassing websites.

Google could make sure when certain terms like "Tibietan" mispell are searched it will display as the first results historical sites with the whole truth.

The keywords spread, as they are found new mispells are created, the Chinese authorities will have to pull the plug on the internet once and for all or allow the Chinese access to all information.

[Etienne]

If I was the kind of government that likes to censor information, I'd pull the plug.

Then nobody'd get the internet. Better censored internet than nothing, I'd say

[DangerousDaze]

Google's a business and its business is not political reform. It's up to the people of China to solve their problems and part of that is knowledge of what goes on in the outside world. The Chinese government is foolish to think that hiding what they do within their borders from their own people is going to halt progress in this area.

Naturally I would prefer that Google didn't censor but at least they are stating that the topic is censored rather than just silently filtering the results (as Microsoft and Yahoo do). Also, Yahoo turned the contents of certain emails over to the Chinese government that directly resulted in the imprisoning of a so-called "Internet Dissident" and compared to that Google are almost saintly.

Nick

[jumpy]

So what? Everybody knows what a bunch of tightarses the chinese are when it comes to freedom of speech, communism asside they've got a billion people to control/organise and whichever way you look at it that's a serious problem.
As for google, well... it's not like it's their descision

Google argues it would be more damaging to pull out of China altogether and says that in contrast to other search engines, it will inform users when access is restricted on certain search terms.

Sounds like fair business practice to me, they're not exactly micro$oft now are they?
I don't really see how this is sooo bad when compared to the rules concerning use of internet cafes in china made by the chinese government itself- I have a friend who has lived over there for the last three or four years, and every time he uses a computer at an internet cafe he has to show his passport so his particulars can be recorded by the police/authorities and flagged against any 'illegal' material online. As far as I understand it, internet cafes are only allowed open for business on the agreement that such records are kept and disclosed as and when required by the state.
China is the one who is enforcing censorship, not google. And at least with google you get a message that the content you were trying to view is flagged as blocked/censored, as opposed to there being no notification of this taking place at all.

[Abraham]

Originally Posted by DangerousDaze

Google's a business and its business is not political reform. It's up to the people of China to solve their problems and part of that is knowledge of what goes on in the outside world. The Chinese government is foolish to think that hiding what they do within their borders from their own people is going to halt progress in this area.

Naturally I would prefer that Google didn't censor but at least they are stating that the topic is censored rather than just silently filtering the results (as Microsoft and Yahoo do). Also, Yahoo turned the contents of certain emails over to the Chinese government that directly resulted in the imprisoning of a so-called "Internet Dissident" and compared to that Google are almost saintly.
Nick

I basically agree with you. It is easy to attack Google for its deal, but it's not completely fair. The problem is with the Chinese. They set the rules, and Google can't do much but abide.
Withdrawing from the Chinese market would be stupid from a business point of view and would make no difference whatsoever; the Chinese have their own net and their market is almost a world on its own.
We'll just have to hope for China to open up to the West, the Rest of the World or whatever you want to call it. Perhaps the Olympics in 2008 might do the trick. Or the booming tourism to the West...
Google won't!

[DangerousDaze]

The other thing is that until this decision Google were running outside of the so-called "Great Firewall of China" whereas their competitors (Yahoo and Microsoft) were inside. This meant that, hard as it is to believe, Google searches were sloooooooow. They really didn't have much of an option.

Nick

[bradclark1]

It's not selling out. China never had freedom of speech to begin with.
You want to do business with China you have to play by their rules or don't play at all.
Sucks, but thats the price of doing business. It's up to the people of China to make changes.

[Letum]

[iblitz]

Fight Tyranny

[Type941]

Originally Posted by Konovalov

This is disgraceful but I guess it wouldn't be the first or the last time that morals have been swept aside in the quest for greater market share.

What did you guys think they would have done? Their only mistake is to call it search engine instead of limited search engine, otherwise - who are you kidding about this morals crap. It worked for them while it was convinient.

Everyone's got a price. even you!

[Abraham]

Originally Posted by Letum

Great Letum!