ViruRulez Posted January 13, 2010 Posted January 13, 2010 A really bold and justified step if they do so. Hats off to Big G once again. Saalon se sab kuch cheen lo. Half of the world's websites are blocked there and anything allowed in China is just restricted. Good for google that they pull out. In a lengthy blog post today, Google announced that it would no longer censor its Chinese search engine, even if it means pulling out of China entirely. This comes in the wake of a wide-ranging attack on its infrastructure targeting Chinese human rights activists. In the post, Google outlined in rather striking detail a “highly sophisticated and targeted attack†that occurred last month, targeting around 20 companies. In its investigation, the search giant found that the attackers’ primary objective was accessing Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. It also found that dozens of other Gmail accounts owned by human rights activists worldwide were compromised, most likely due to phishing scams or malware. Google wouldn’t say it, but implications are that the Chinese government had something to do with these attacks. As a result of the attacks, Google has decided to reassess its presence in China. The Chinese government and Google have fought over censorship before, but currently the search engine does block certain results (such as images of the Tiananmen Square massacre). Now Google’s making it clear that it won’t comply with China’s demands any longer. Here’s the key paragraph from the Google post: “These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered–combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web–have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China. We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.†Google has taken a very public stand against censorship, albeit one that is years overdue. How this series of events plays out could not only affect Google and the tech community, but global politics as a whole. :two_thumbs_up::hatsoff:
Guest Gunner Posted January 13, 2010 Posted January 13, 2010 Should have done it right at the beginning.
Sachinism Posted January 13, 2010 Posted January 13, 2010 Well done Google, screw China and their BS.
The Outsider Posted January 13, 2010 Posted January 13, 2010 And screw your own shareholders. And screw millions in China who rely on Google for real news and opinions. :hysterical::hysterical: which are censored by the Chinese government, which is one of the reasons for the pull out!
Sachinism Posted January 13, 2010 Posted January 13, 2010 And screw your own shareholders. And screw millions in China who rely on Google for real news and opinions. More like the views and opinions of the Chinese government, they'll decide what the people of China should or should not see
triam Posted January 13, 2010 Posted January 13, 2010 if google goes through with this, I for one will really respect them for standing upto their principles.
The Outsider Posted January 13, 2010 Posted January 13, 2010 No need for these contrived hysterics :winky: Only the incredibly naive would repose faith in efficacy of such censorship. The search engine market there is essentially a duopoly with the market leader Baidu being totally compliant to CCP strictures. Google, even with all the censorship in place, is the best bet for Chinese looking for authentic news. So google should ignore attempts to make their search engine a mouthpiece of the Chinese government? How long before with increased censorship the difference between google and Baidu keeps on diminishing? It should also ignore the targeted attacks on human rights activists? Why? Because it's the "best bet" for "authentic news" for the Chinese?
Ram Posted January 13, 2010 Posted January 13, 2010 Hmmm, Google has become increasingly political these days. They gave SIGNIFICANT coverage to the recent student/election protests in Iran. In fact, a channel with all the protest videos was adorning their homepage for a while. And now this. What I find most intriguing in this development is the cause-and-effect aspect. Google says someone in China tried to hack into the gmail accounts of some human rights activists. Whats that got to do with the Freedom of speech in China? Btw, when google first launched in 2006, everyone criticized them for conceding to the chinese govt. demand for censoring their search results. Back then, their reasoning was that boycotting the chinese market entirely would do more harm. What has changed since then for them to reconsider their stand?
coffee_rules Posted January 13, 2010 Posted January 13, 2010 No Big deal, Chinese smart people can set up or use proxy serviers and VPNs to get access google. It's only the unintelligent that suffer. I guess only the cosmopolitan elite Chinese man that wants to access google will be affected, but there are other means to reach his needs. Nothing will come out of it. China won't change it's policies because of privacy rights violation of Google. Google will lose its market share in China. Somebody doing business would not want to lose any kind of share in China as it's good for global economy, somebody is not that stupid to do it over a flimsy reason as privary rights.
The Outsider Posted January 13, 2010 Posted January 13, 2010 Btw, when google first launched in 2006, everyone criticized them for conceding to the chinese govt. demand for censoring their search results. Back then, their reasoning was that boycotting the chinese market entirely would do more harm. What has changed since then for them to reconsider their stand? The Chinese market is too big too lose and I don't think google will take the step to move out. However, they can use such instances as pressure tactics to avoid further censoring from the government. Issues like free speech do tend be pretty emotive and perhaps they want to use the chance to make sure that censorship does not reach the level where google is but a glorified mouthpiece of the Chinese government.
The Outsider Posted January 13, 2010 Posted January 13, 2010 Do you have any information indicating that the CCP has progressively increased the scope of censorship? Without such information, your fears are largely rhetorical conjectures. Regarding the choice available to Google, I'd favor them staying on in China (assuming the level of censorship hasn't increased significantly since 2006). It's clear that Google's withdrawal from China would have ZERO effect on the government there. In contrast, it'd certainly deprive the average netizen there of otherwise authentic news. Regardless, as a true profit-maximizing firm, Google would most likely broker a deal eventually. I agree that Google is not going to pull out and mentioned so in another post. The Chinese market is too big to miss out on and they are using an emotive issue like free speech to make sure there is pressure on the Chinese government as well. Regarding, the increase of censorship there was a lot of noise during the time of Olympics and protests in Tibet when China supposedly increased censorship levels. China also asked Google to filter out more webpages some time last year, when they felt Google was not complying with the initial agreement.
chanakya Posted January 14, 2010 Posted January 14, 2010 No Big deal' date=' Chinese smart people can set up or use proxy serviers and VPNs to get access google. It's only the unintelligent that suffer. I guess only the cosmopolitan elite Chinese man that wants to access google will be affected, but there are other means to reach his needs. Nothing will come out of it. China won't change it's policies because of privacy rights violation of Google. Google will lose its market share in China. Somebody doing business would not want to lose any kind of share in China as it's good for global economy, somebody is not that stupid to do it over a flimsy reason as privary rights.[/quote'] Does not work. Internet censorship in china is done at the last level. So even if they use proxies etc while googling they do get the result but the result shows up a blank page. If you control the ISP's you dont have to worry about proxies In 2006 BBC did a feature about China's censorship program. The response of google is partly due to the number of high profile targets and the pattern of attacks which analysts say could only have been done with the permission of the Chinese government.
flamy Posted January 14, 2010 Posted January 14, 2010 http://i.imgur.com/5xJmy.jpg :haha: :hysterical::hysterical:
flamy Posted January 23, 2010 Posted January 23, 2010 Proff and his sidekick ... the defenders of free world ... who would have thunk .... once again :haha::haha::haha::haha::haha:
The Outsider Posted January 23, 2010 Posted January 23, 2010 Proff and his sidekick ... the defenders of free world ... who would have thunk .... once again Is that your pathetic attempt at trolling? Maybe you should move to China now that you have given up on India to realize what freedom actually entails.
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