Google Agrees to Censor Results in China

[Roon]

Online search engine leader Google Inc. has agreed to censor its results in China, adhering to the country's free-speech restrictions in return for better access in the Internet's fastest growing market.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based company planned to roll out a new version of its search engine bearing China's Web suffix ".cn," on Wednesday. A Chinese-language version of Google's search engine has previously been available through the company's dot-com address in the United States.

By creating a unique address for China, Google hopes to make its search engine more widely available and easier to use in the world's most populous country.

Because of government barriers set up to suppress information, Google's China users previously have been blocked from using the search engine or encountered lengthy delays in response time.

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/01/24/D8FBCF686.html

[Roon]

1. Kick

I can't believe after everyone went apeshit over that reporter that yahoo betrayed, that this isn't a bigger story!

[Massacure]

2. Google is already censored anyways.

But doing it themselves they just open up more economic opportunities by making it easier to use.

[rman]

23. it would be either this or no google in China

Also google will notify users that the search results are censored.

It's interesting to note that one of the forbidden topics in China is democratic reform - makes one wonder why * isn't spreading freedom and democracy in China.

It's one of the topics of today's news on www.democracynow.org.

[Roon]

3. I can't believe that I have to kick this

but one last kick and then I will let it die. You DU folks are something else.

[EFerrari]

6. So many fires, Roon, so little real time.

[DeepModem Mom]

11. Some are interested only in outrages from our own government...

as if we had a patent on evil. I deplore the control China imposes on its people, and post any story I find documenting it. I regret that Google has chosen to aid in this limitation of freedom.

[Mojorabbit]

4. Does not seem as if

there are any businesses left with any morals.

[HuffleClaw]

5. i don't really have a problem with this

its THEIR nations laws, not that i agree with censorship, but its not really for me to say that their laws should be ignored. my nation, canada has hate crimes laws fore example, and i'd be loathe to see google not adhering to those.

[Spider Jerusalem]

7. Very bad and irrelevant example.

Google isn't going to engage in hate crimes, pretty obviously. And the hate crimes laws in Canada don't mean that a Canadian can't, if he's inclined, use Google to search for, say, information on neo-Naziism. It's also a bad precedent, because if Google is willing to violate their supposed principles in the case of China, merely so they may access a large and untapped market (brute capitalism at its filthiest, if you ask me), how can we expect that they may not knuckle under to similar requests for censorship in countries where information is currently less restricted (like the US, or the UK, or Canada)?

Can you really shrug off a Western corporation very publicly knuckling under to totalitarianism so blithely? They don't HAVE to comply at all, you know. They've been doing just fine without an official presence in China. And compliance hurts their supposed stance of "free access to information". Would YOU believe or trust a man who told you he believed in free access to information, and thought censorship was wrong, who then turned around and attended a book-burning with a bunch of Nazis because he wanted to do business with them?

[HuffleClaw]

8. its THEIR nation and their laws

just because we don't agree with it doesn't give us the right to ignore their laws in their country.

[ECH1969]

9. So if we go to Pakistan and see a women being gang raped

for any one of a hundred reasons we shouldn't yell because its their country.

The right could make the same arguement you are about the European groups constantly attacking US human rights that they have no say on the matter because it isn't their country.

[klook]

15. Good point

Your analogy is right on. In this and the Yahoo case, Americans have even more right to stick our noses in, because these are American companies.

New Google motto: "Don't be very evil."

[HuffleClaw]

24. not much of a comparison

gang rape isn't legal.

[mogster]

19. It's more visual with an example

http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&safe=off...

http://images.google.cn/images?q=tiananmen+square&hl=zh...

[Larissa238]

20. Click on those links!

It's an amazing example.

[DeepModem Mom]

10. K&R

[corporatemedia]

12. CNN Poll: "Should Google Inc. have agreed to censor its search results in

China?"

http://www.cnn.com /


Once the corporations have perfected their censorship and spying software in China, guess where they'll be using it next?

[architect359]

13. K&R too

Google is one of those companies that I had felt comfortable supporting but I am disappointed with this move. I understand the economic justifications but on first blush, I felt that Google should have taken the higher ground. I hope that when Chinese users try to access the google dot cn site and navigate to the censored portions of the web, they see a splash page that indicates the info is being withheld at the behest of the Chinese government and its laws - so at least they know what the game is rather than quietly shunting their queries around to convenient state approved sites.

[Triana]

14. Our own gov't will be doing that in the us soon....

...if they're not already. WHY do you think they wanted those Google search records? 'Cause they're looking for PORN?

HA!

I don't THINK so...

[Squatch]

16. I have no problem with this.

Google is, after all, a for-profit enterprise. They'd be stupid if they shot themselves in the foot getting involved in the world's largest growing internet market.

[revolutionrock]

17. Surely, there is a way around it.

[Festivito]

18. Google censorship here versus China should now be clear.

Here Google, Ebay censor items, items remain in a cache, but soon dissapear forever.
We censor guns in a way, from felons.
Some want abortions censored, along with pornography.
We once censored alcohol.

China has its own list.

As with most censorship, I love to see the list of the censored.
And, it heightens the longing for the items I cannot have.

But, at least, the differences of our lists become clear.

[GodlessBiker]

21. This kills the good will they built up from fighting the subpoenas . . .

the government issued to track internet searches.

As a Google stockholder, I was proud of the company's fight of the subpoenas, but this makes me ashamed I own the stock.

[Squatch]

22. So, are you going to sell the stock...

or hang on to it and realize the capital gains this move to Chinese markets will eventually bring?

Personally, as a Google stockholder, I want them to make money...for me. That's why I bought the stock in the first place, not as some nod to their socio-political leanings.

[GodlessBiker]

26. I sold half of my holdings today. We'll see how it goes.

[enigma000]

25. "don't be evil" as a motto

Google officials characterized the censorship concessions in China as an excruciating decision for a company that adopted "don't be evil" as a motto. But management believes it's a worthwhile sacrifice.

"We firmly believe, with our culture of innovation, Google can make meaningful and positive contributions to the already impressive pace of development in China," said Andrew McLaughlin, Google's senior policy counsel.

That just might be the most hypocritical thing I've ever read. Can anyone recommend a good search engine?