Google knuckles under to Chinese Censorship

[Calum]

No microsoft here, so not in Microsoft in the News section - deal with it.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4645596.stm

Google has decided to censor results in its chinese language search engine to not return results which the totalitarian Chinese regime wouldn't want people to read, mainly political subjects which could show the Chinese government in a bad light.

I know china's government is often lauded as a pro-linux administration, and i know Google is often regarded as the "best" search engine among computer users in general, but here google are accepting censorship to make a quick buck, and the chinese government is continuing its program of censorship and control to mask human rights atrocities which it itself is responsible for.

controversial...

[Refalm]

Google has also taken over Bandai, the largest Chinese search engine.

[hm_murdock]

Know what would rule? If Google said this... even had agreements on paper... and then whenever someone in China searched for "Mao is cool" or "China has the best government"... it would turn up sites that denounce the government, including a Google-sponsored site that gave Chinese insurgents all the resources they need to overthrow their government.

Then... Google would start using money made in China to fund anti-Chinese guerillas... and within 10 years... the Red Chinese regime is crumbling.

That's what I'd do.

And then, when all the dust has settled, someone would ask why I did it.

"Because I could."

[Refalm]

I don't think Google will do that. I mean, it's pretty hard to enter the Chinese market, and when a company has succesfully done that and even manages to make a profit, that company must be thankfull.
And they're going to make a lot of cash in the emerging Chinese economy.

[worker201]

I don't know why the Chinese are so freaked.  I mean, US Senators have web access to "communism rulez" sites, and they aren't thinking about a socialist revolution.  More than likely, most Chinese people are relatively happy about their country's budding prosperity and their government's policies.  So a few "yay America" or "China suxorz" websites aren't going to make that much of a dent.  Hell, I look at pictures of naked girls everyday, that doesn't make me any more likely to have sex - in fact, it does the exact opposite.

But seriously, if a little information can destroy your whole society, then your society has some pretty serious fucking problems.  I think the Chinese officials need to have a little more faith in their citizens.

[hm_murdock]

China doesn't have a government. They have an organization designed to make sure that it does what it was designed to do... which is to make sure that it does what it was designed to do... infinite loop. It has no real purpose. It's just that things like "prosperity" are required for it to continue doing what it was designed to do.

[worker201]

China doesn't have a government. They have an organization designed to make sure that it does what it was designed to do... which is to make sure that it does what it was designed to do... infinite loop. It has no real purpose. It's just that things like "prosperity" are required for it to continue doing what it was designed to do.

"The purpose of the state is the preservation of the state" - I don't know who said it first, but I first heard it from Kirkpatrick Sale.

But what is any different between that and the US government?  The US and China both have propaganda systems so deeply placed that they aren't even conscious anymore, both have a government so overloaded and bureaucratic that it can't even protect its citizens from a disastrous flood, and both control access to resources to ensure the continued existence of the working class.  As I see it, the only difference is that the American people lie to themselves that they have total freedom, when what they really have is a cage that lets in a lot of sunlight.  In this respect, the Chinese are more honest about what they have.

Of course, I've never been to China, and I wouldn't trust any reports on conditions there from either side.  So if the Chinese can only lie about the state of things in China, and the US can only lie the other direction about the state of things in China, then what exactly is getting censored here?

As it turns out, I don't have much of a point.  Consider these nothing more than talkpoints.

[inane]

What I was led to believe when this story first came to my attention was that Google did this because the Chinese government was completely blocking their site. Within just over a month Sergei had made an agreement with the government. Google wasn't the only search engine banned. The Chinese still can't access Yahoo or Altavista.