Slashdot Mirror
Yahoo Agrees to Censor Chinese Portal
Bonker writes: "This article at Salon indicates that Yahoo, as part of a larger pledge to 'purge the Web of content that China's communist government deems subversive', has agreed to censor 'pernicious information that may jeopardize state security and disrupt social stability' from its Chinese portal. Yahoo is one of about 300 other ISPs and websites who have signed the 'Public Pledge on Self-discipline for China Internet Industry'."
What's going to happen when someone realizes the plans on how to build a rocket to get a man into space and in orbit are on a blocked website?
They are a business, if they want to make money in China, then they need to play by China's rules.
And somewhere, John Ashcroft is moaning with envy...
When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a skull.
whos 'We'
do you work for yahoo?
i doubt it.
they wont get mad at the United States. they will get mad at the Chinese subsidary of Yahoo
Moron
Scarily enough, it goes on in the U.S. too. Take a good, long hard look at Walmart Corp. They are one of the nation's largest redistributors of magazines and other periodicals... so large, in fact, that if Walmart refuses to carry a magazine for a month, it can break a publication financially.
Combine that with the fact that Walmart has always upheld a rather fraudulent reputation that it is interested in the concerns of senior citezens, religious organizations, and 'family-oriented' concerns, and you end up with something pretty scary. Walmart has been known to refuse to sell books, games, CD's and magazines that had any kind of content deemed innapropriate. Quite a few of the magazines in the U.S. have to run their covers and editorial content past Walmart for approval before they can go to press.
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
It amazes me that companies will put aside morals and values to make a buck in China. Yes, China is the largest untapped consumer group in the world, but the Chinese government has a histroy of its on subversive behavior. Perhaps when the government gets its head out of its ass and takes away MFN status from China we will see a change in China's treatment of its citizens. I guess maintaining a favorable GDP is more important than supporting the inalienable human rights we Americans feel are so important. I doubt Yahoo would ever do the same for North Korea and Cuba, but alas China has a billion consumers.
This isn't really the first step. Many other corporations have bowed under pressure from foreign governments (including the US). What I don't understand is why is it Yahoo's problem to control the Chinese people? This is proof that the Chinese government is losing control of the populace. Hopefully, the people will revolt soon and get rid of the Communist regime.
"I'm just here to regulate funkiness."
How would I go about setting up an encrypted web proxy, and then letting, maybe a some students mainland China know about it?
They'd sell their mother for a buck.
What will happen is the anti-communist china groups will now be able to bring in streams of reports, content, and information that these guys will be left out on. If it is done enough, they should be able to brow-beat these providers into backing out of their Chineese agreement and force them to reaffirm where their true roots are.
Is how submersive sites are judged.
Looking at the agreement summary, it is OBVIOUS to me Yahoo would sign it. While we like to focus (and we do) on how evil the chinese government can be (and they are), this may not be the best example of that.
What Yahoo seems to have agreed to:
1) Don't host anything illegal to your target audience.
2) Don't promote porn to China.
3) Don't attempt to incite revolution.
I'm sure once you take local laws into context (which their TOS already does, no doubt) it seems to be nothing they haven't already agreed to before.
Go ahead, post pictures to yahoo of hardcore porn where someone uses a bomb as vibrator and explains how to make it. See your browser smoke as they pull the page as fast as they can, even on Yahoo USA.
Never confuse volume with power.
But shouldn't someone (a large company) stand up against this oppressions of their people who deserve to have information? I hope Google doesn't fall into this soon. It's truely terrible how these people are treated over there..
I think that we should all come up with as many ways to circumvent China's "Wall" as we can. I don't see why the US is concerned with people's rights only in certain places, and never China.
Tibbon
tibbon.com
You can access
very important
information by
this password
DO NOT SAVE
password to disk
use your mind
now press
cancel
yaBOOOooooooooo!!!!!!!!
1. Are all sites linked to by Yahoo's chinese portal in Chinese? If this is the case, then there is really nothing to this. Those sites are already hosted and run according to Chinese law. /. ten times a day?
2. Is yahoo restricting access from China to Yahoo.com? If so... that is sad. If not... how in the world would they filter their English search engine to only allow certain sites into China? It probably means that they won't filter that...and because the Chinese language is as complicated as it is, and doesn't translate to keyboards very well...most people with internet access probably know some english. They'll get to the information anyway.
3. Has China established itself as a technological black hole? I mean...are they cutting off all internet traffic that doesn't abide by their rules. There's no way that any global news site could ever restrict content based on their wishes...that is probably fine with them...but technology news, driver and support databases, etc... and how can anyone use computers without at least viewing
Certainly every man at his best state is but vapor
I think its funny I just now am seeing this story on /. after I just finished reading a cnn article about hackers trying to prevent this. I understand that Yahoo is just doing what they need to do to say in business there.
Any business that works in more than one country has to update there business practices for that countries laws and I can't falt them for it. But I do think most of these efforts by the china are going to be wastes of time.
When companies like Yahoo! look across the Pacific at a large group of people fed bullshit & held under the thumb of an oppressive dictatorship and all they can think of is how they can buddy up to the gov't in order to get a crack at these "new consumers", I'd say that we have larger corporate ethics problems than Enron, kids.
Yahoo! Where your civil liberties are what your government tells us they are.
The only tool you've got against psychosis is experience.
And I guess IBM was right in helping the Nazis?
Tibbon
tibbon.com
But unfortunately money speaks before human rights. Who can argue with a country that houses that many users? We just really need one ISP to stand defiant in front the approaching communist tank.
Why, o why must the sky fall when I've learned to fly?
From on point of view, this seems a pretty dumb decision on the part of Yahoo. But on the other hand, if Yahoo just agrees to the contract to get the support of the Chinese government, then happens to drag it's feet and "forget" to censor things, it's a nice beaurocratic turn around until the Chinese government catches on and cancells the agreement, by which time more Chinese citizens will have taken a liking to Yahoo.
So, depending on how it's used and "enforced", this might yet be a good thing.
Ryan Fenton
They are a business, if they want to make money in China, then they need to play by China's rules.
Yes. Remember that anything you do is OK -- as long as you're a business, and you did it to make money.
As much as we don't agree with it, we have to respect it.
We do? No we don't. Hasn't moral relativism been put down yet?
I don't respect Yahoo helping Chinese dictators send political dissidents to prison. I'm trying.. trying.. trying very hard now.... Nope, can't do it. Shame on Yahoo.
This happened to Yahoo! in France with auctions of Third Reich memorabilia, and Yahoo! severely censored itself to a far greater extent to prevent further controversy in France. How could it come as a surprise that the ChiCom's would follow suit?
Calm down, it's *only* ones and zeroes.
Maybe they should vote to stop all the hacks that culminate from that region (SE Asia) first, before deciding censorship is the way to go. But no, I guess they're right... limiting freedom is surely MUCH more important than stopping illegal practices which damage people much more than allowing knowledge to flow...
"PC Load Letter? What the $@#% does that mean?!"
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Why not? Isn't the Internet a place for FREE ideas and thought? I can make all the software I want to distribute stuff to China. It's not illegal as long as I don't put over 56-bit encryption stuff in it. China can't hurt me, but I can hurt the Chinese communist government with it by letting the people know what's really happening.
If a big company got into the mix, and started pushing towards it, and made 1 billion people it's loyal and happy users because it helped them out, what do they have to loose? China can't do much about it really. They don't have jurisdition here, and with Satilite, we can feed informtion into their countries without their control, because they don't control the skies, and from the looks of it- it's taking them 35 years to even start going into the sky...
Tibbon
tibbon.com
Would Yahoo be at all responsible if they made "bad" filters that just didn't work well, and didn't support that part of their "service" well??? :)
How many companies give bad support when you call them? Ever tried Microsoft? They could model after them..
Yugoslavia, Croatia, Estonia, etc... All those areas that US had troops for a long time trying to help out with humans rights and to stop WW3.
Somalia (think BH Down..)
Helping set up Isreal
Vietman- trying to free people from the communist oppression (failed terribely, but...)
Korean War..
There are many times that the US had meddled in others affairs trying to make them the way they "we" want them. Some for the better, some for the worse... but they have
Tibbon
tibbon.com
My first reaction to this news was, I'm sure you can all imagine, horror. Like any good slasheepbot, I am a believer in human rights, such as free speech and freedom of religion. Neither of these are recognized in China.
But then I reconsidered. China, as backward as it may be, has come a long way since the days of the Cultural Revolution. Baby girls are no longer killed by exposure as much, and many people dream now of one day running factories in the larger cities, polluted though they may be.
And to what can this slow but encouraging improvement be attributed? I'd say it must be increased communication and trade with Western societies. The Yahoo! et al decision may seem abhorrent to we in the moral right, but it will also have the effect of keeping the relationship between China and the US strong.
That relationship is what will eventually heal China. Yes, it hurts when you rip off a bandage to let in the air; but in the end, you keep the wound from festering, and infection is avoided. I don't want to have to amputate China.
Karma: Good (despite my invention of the Karma: sig)
And PI got yanked because of corportate support.
Freedom of speech exists, but sometimes there is a price to pay. It may be that you may not get on the product list at Walmart, it may mean you lose your job. But the one thing it does mean is the government won't lock you away for it.
(or at least most of the time the government doesn't lock you away for speaking)
They'll post a question to "ask /." and we'll happily put list a few dozen mirrors and dozen posts will the full instructions listed "in case the mirrors are /.ed".
Heck, we'll also tell them what's wrong with the plans, wrong instructions on how to correct the mistakes, right instructions on how to correct the wrong corrections, and how to make a beowulf cluster out of them.
-- If god wanted me to have a sig, he'd have given me a sense of humor.
More likely, WalMart makes its guidelines for carrying a publication known, and editors have a choice whether its mission is compatible with that.
People posting voracious opinions on things they know nothing about is of course a hallmark of Slashdot, but for some reason it always bothers me much more with political issues than with *nix religious ones. Therefore, I will go out on a limb here and encourage people to learn a little more about the political situation in China before spewing their rants.
First off, as we all know, the internet is pretty hard to block. People who are interested and motivated can get the information that they need - particularly if you are looking for political information and not more easily recognized things like illegal software or porn. Chinese university students, high-tech workers, etc., are all very smart and internet aware, and so we can assume that they know these tricks. We can also assume that the government is not run by idiots, and thus they know this as well.
So the question is, giving all of this, why does the government bother? Who do they think they are fooling? Who are they protecting, and from what?
As a westerner who has spent a quite a bit of time in China, who has worked there and whose wife runs a high-tech company there, I think I have a little insight. I can tell you that China is not interested in keeping people from reading Slashdot, or from reading CNN, or whatever. China is concerned mostly with unscrupulous people using mass-media to unduly influence large groups of extremely uneducated people. These are the people whose information they are trying to control, not the educated people in the cities.
Most people in the US are dismissive of this answer, because people here just do not appreciate the extreme education gap in China. China has about 800 million people who have only the most basic education. Whereas in the US, some self-serving nutball like David Koresh might be able to get 100 or 200 people to follow them, in China, a charismatic psycho can get several million. Without education, people cannot accurately compare promises that the government makes ("send your kids to school, pay your taxes, and the future will be better") to promises made by some pseudo-religious idiot ("you have a wheel in your heart that drives you; no need to work, or even eat." "The UFO behind the asteroid will take care of you if you send me your money.") Until China's rural population is educated, controlling the information is in fact necessary for social stability.
Sure there is a lot of political posturing going on on top of this, but at the root, this is what is actually being done at a practical level.
In Australia, apparently.
/me scratches head.
When it's France, however, the folks from Yahoo stand up and defend their right to independent content. Strange dualism going on there, wouldn't you say.
It also seems that all you need to get yahoo to pull certain content or messages is a few irate e-mails... Heck, even the Saudis have asked yahoo to regulate itself according to its government's preferences.
Where's the surprise?
They've always been like this.
Blearf. Blearf, I say.
Wasn't there a big stink about google accidentally removing some religous web page a while back?
So why couldn't people be simalarly upset when their page isn't listed in China? Just because a page of mine links to the BBC doesn't mean that I should be censored. Doesn't the fact that we have Freedom of Speech mean that when we speak, everyone should be able to hear that wants to?
Tibbon
tibbon.com
Under WalMart with Lindows and Mandrake For All
Is there a website that tracks what is banned? It would be interesting to see what yahoo or any site picks to ban from China.
Table-ized A.I.
But shouldn't mom and pop be able to read the BBC? Or are only the leet allowed to read the news?
Tibbon
tibbon.com
Submersive sites are those hosted at SeaLand.
I know a lot of people will disagree with me here -- but I personally think some of this stuff is, in fact, quite necessary.
I see the chinese government with one primary function right now above all else. SOCIAL STABILITY. you do not appreciate how delicate things are until you consider that keeping a billion and half people fed (reasonably), and live in a GROWING economy despite the world's financial slowdown -- is difficult to say the least.
Think about it - if the government actually just went away in a bang - some revolutionarys (irony for those who gets it) take over and starts anew: what do you really think is going to happen to China? total chaos... It would not be so bad if there are more $$ flowing through (read: homogenously distributed), or if there are not so many people. but bottom line is: social stability goes sour = many people starve to death.
now -- even if you are this humanitarian AMERICAN at the helm of the chinese government. without being way too rediculously "freedom above everyithng including pizza and beer (read: bread and water)" -- you will realize that it is practical, nay, MORAL, to allow the freedom side of things to slide for a couple decades while everything else falls into place.
Take FaLun Gong for example. You know why chinese govn't are afraid / worried about them? because there are precedenting incidents involving religious cults. china has a lot of history so there are a lot to learn from: in the past, a movement similar to FaLun (May Hua? i don't remember) has overthrown govn't before. I am not surprised that the government is curbing it.
Anyway -- i am not saying that i *like* what is happening to china in regards to freedom. but if giving up some of my freedom means that the country rest on this fragile balance and people do not starve to death left and right -- i will deal.
side note: things will change eventually anyway. I would say that with the infusion of some economical power and growing number of middle-class families; along with better education, the change will come. it will just come slowly, and while it is not completely here -- some sacrifices may need to be made to make sure anarchy does not ruin the whole thing.
for those who are worried about world war and what not: i doubt it. the US and China has become quite inter-dependent economy-wise. US companies thrives on the fabs and plants in china (look around you and see how many theose damn "made in china" stickers you can find) -- and china on the US's capital investments. so no war -- just evolution to a world economy. the only obstacle to this is probabbly taiwan, actually... but otherwise, china's bulging military is just a compensatory effort -- they won't be used unless something goes very sour -- and due to the aforementioned economical relationships -- nothing will get that bad.
My life in the land of the rising sun.
Can anyone get hold of a list of the sites that the Goverment consider unsuitable?
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - Voltaire
I have nothing to add, except that I'm not from the US, but I'm in the US, and I'm from a country that is certainly worse in many aspects, yet I see more and more similaries between my country and the US since September 11th.
The American government is keeping up the illusion that we are still the most powerful nation on the planet. This is horribly wrong, but luckily our enemies have not yet noticed it. The US holds mere remnants of power and glory from its former prestigious days, which might be enough to subdue one country for a little while longer, but is helpless against a group of allied nations.
There is only one solution to this problem, and it will not be peaceful. We have become too entrenched in our policies and ways to extract ourselves cleanly and return mighty America, misguided guardian of freedom and liberty, to its former days of majestic splendor.
I call for every patriotic American to cut their ties with countries like China and Saudi Arabia unless they truly and sincerely change their ways. This cannot go on any longer! We deserve our freedom and so do the poor oppressed proletariats of communist China as well.
I speak to my fellow Americans to take an active part in your government, not only for the sake of all those living under oppressive governments, but for your safety and well-being. We must cut our ties with China! We are setting them up to make a play for world dominations by catering to their needs. And I assure you, the moment our wonderful nation stumbles, China will be there to take our place. They can leave us helpless and struggling, and while they can still do so, our nation can never be a true protector of all that is good and great.
It would be banned there
Watching Cowboy Bebop in my jammies, eating a bowl of Shreddies.
Someone above said Yahoo was just another business. Someone ranted about China's abyssmal human rights record. As usual everyone has something to say but nobody really gives a shit. We choose to ignore China. Our own Government chooses to ignore China in a very real sense. And someday it's going to bite us in the ass. My apologies to Chinese Citizens but China sucks ass. End of story. And any American or American company that would put money ahead of the reality of the Chinese Iron Fist sucks ass too! What's wrong is that nobody really gives a rat's ass do they? Such a pity... Tell me, what is the real reason that George Bush continues the Clinton tradition of kissing China's hairless butt? Free trade with commies? Come on! I think George is scared shitless of riling the Dragon. He's a pussy. Fuck China. The whole situation makes me sick.
I find it difficult to believe that this is the most insightful thing you could think of to contribute.
No offense, but maybe you should have stayed in bed today.
Why are people so quick to criticize China and so quick to forget America's abuses of "human rights" and "democracy"? This is a country trying to take care of 1 billion people. 1 billion people, can you imagine us doing that? We have 20 guys who decided to crash some planes, and the administration has already curtailed civil rights significantly.
Despite what you may think, the government of the United States is not open to all opinions, and it is hardly a place where rational people are in control. Take a look at this link to see what the requirements are for people entering the US. They're not exactly being welcomed in a freedom-of-speech, tolerating sort of way, now are they?
People seem to love picking on China because it's got the label "Communist" in it's name. I never ceased to be surprised at how much stupidity the word "communism" evokes among supposedly educated, rational people. How about all those countries who are our friends, yet commit far worse human rights abuses? Good for China, that it learned the lesson, "if you make products that people want, they could give a crap about human rights".
If you want to criticize others, I suggest that you first do some cleaning of your own house.
I really don't know what else to say about this. The notion that a company which grew up in the US, as a direct result of the freedoms we enjoy here, would go overseas and act so unethically just appals me.
If there was anything (ethical) I could think of to hurt yahoo's bottom line I would surely do it at this point. Any suggestions?
How long until, say, China (or, for that matter, the US or Britain) says 'any sites not using Newspeak are banned'. And everyone says 'OK, pay us and we'll do it.'
Sure, Yahoo needs to make sound business decisions, but there is a word for people who are willing to compromise ethics for money.
"Scum."
Money should take a back seat to human rights and freedoms.
As Lenin, that hideous creature of Evil, might have said: China's Useful Idiots.
Slashdot: Failed Car Analogies. Amateur Lawyering. Anecdote Battles.
I'm very, very disappointed at Yahoo for selling out to a despotic government, to say the least. Anyhow, I'm not surprised that the Chinese would do this -- I'm an American businessman in the import- export business, so as you might guess, my frequent travels take me to many places around the world, on every continent.
I wanted to share my experience in the "great" country of China.
So, I was in Shenzhen China last December for about a week on business. A bit of background: Shenzhen, like Hong Kong and a few other places, is a "Special Economic Zone" that the Chinese government set up to try and give foreigners the illusion that China really ISN'T a drab, decaying fascist state that's economically languishing behind the rest of the world. Here, rules are relaxed and capitalism is encouraged, not surppressed. Well, let me tell you this, if this is China's best, then I'd hate to see the worst.
Anyways, when I stepped off the train from Hong Kong (which was no paradise itself, as that place has gone down the shitter since the Brits left) I was shocked. The whole place smelled like a combination of vomit and dog shit that had been left out in the sun for a day or so. And it was probably BECAUSE there was vomit and dog shit all over. I almost retched, and I've certainly been in some sketchy places in my travels but NOTHING like this.
People spit everywhere. Trash litters the streets. I found myself looking DOWNWARD much more than looking FORWARD when I walked.
Noise pollution is endemic. It doesn't help that their infernal language consists of abrupt rapid fire tones that is a cacophony for any human ear to bear. How do they speak and listen to that shit without going crazy all day long is beyond me.
Anyways, Chinamen stink -- literally. There is no concept of personal hygiene whatsoever. Meetings with even top officials were hourlong sessions of having to endure hot sweaty bodies and rancid breath eminating from mouths missing a few teeth. Geez, at least use deodorant for crying out loud.
The hypocrisy, corruption, and double-standards from the highest levels of government on over are the norm at the same time China opens up to the world. Foreigners get charged as much as five times for transportation, lodging, food, and everything else.
Traffic is horrible. Rules are non-existent except for at traffic lights: red means to go fast, green means to go REALLY REALLY fast.
The Chinese people themselve are pretty apathetic and everyone just wants to get out of that hell hole, so you see smuggling rings shipping people out hidden in truck beds and ships, all too often with tragic results.
The whole country, in my assessment is a lost case. Even the cheap labor can be found in Southeast Asia or Mexico. Same goes for pirated stuff -- SE Asia and Eastern Europe will keep on churning them out.
Anyways, the one redeeming quality were the girls. I paid 100 yuan (about $12 US) for a great fuck, with a 16 year old who seemed quite new and "unblemished" if you get my drift. Boy, was she tight, made all the right noises, sucked and fucked all night long and let me cum all over her. Much better than even the vaunted Thai whores, and worlds apart from anything in Las Vegas or in Europe. Best bargain I have EVER found in my life!
So yeah, screw the hell hole that's China. It's a lost cause of a country suspsended by a hollow facade of so-called new capitalism that's just show more than anything.
There's 10 types of people in this world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
Yahoo.com doesn't display adverts with 14 year old girls in sexual situations, and Yahoo.de auctions doesn't sell Mein Kampf. Local portals are localised. Every page on the web breaks some law somewhere; it's just that some make more effort to comply with a particular (and arbitrary) bunch of local morality and laws, so that they don't have to spend all their money on lawyers. Get over it.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Thought I'd just drop this into the mix... cultural/political relativism has its moments, but it seems today that people use it as a reason not to disapprove of *anything*
Face it folks, some people's culture just plain sucks. People sure criticize Western culture, yes? Why is it not allowed to criticize other peoples' systems, then?
Certainly there are good things to be found in any successful society or system, but don't let it blind you to the problems.
One can't really expect Yahoo! to put illegal material on their front page for certain countries, and I don't think there there are horrible Orwellian consequences to this action.
I think that what is more likely to happen is that the Chinese people will have more access to information than they once had, and will [in time] demand even freer access. This is not entirely a bad thing---certainly, for the Chinese people, it is better if they have access to foreign run websites that are willing to play ball than no access at all.
There are pretty active campaigns in the USA to shut down MP3 trading, "warez", movie trading, etc etc. We all know how well that has worked. You can't get any of that stuff on the net anymore. :)
Same deal here - as long as the net gets in to China, things that the government doesn't want the people to see will get in there too. Its the nature of the net, and the Chinese people are not stupid. If they want to see it, they'll find a way.
Of course the government was going to try to throttle the information flow - that's what they do. This is one dike that is waaay to big for even their fingers, I think.
anyone know a good email address at yahoo where we can voice our concerns?
K.
For the July 4th holiday, I spent a few days in a town in the Midwest. Downtown looked pretty dead, and everyone shopped at the Wal-Mart by the highway.
At one point I checked out the magazine section at the Wal-Mart, to catch up on the world. No such luck.
Outside of Time and Discover, there were absolutely *no* magazines that involved politics, current events, or any level of deep thinking. Everything was geared toward teenage girls, monster-truck fans, and needlepointing nannies. There was no Economist, Atlantic, or Harper's. I didn't even see US News or Newsweek. There certainly wasn't anything cutting edge or progressive.
Out of curiousity, the next chance I had, I checked out bookstores in the local yellow pages. 'Local' meaning a large rural area, about 50 miles by 100 miles. There is one medium-sized town in the area, and they have a Waldenbooks and an independent bookstore. But outside of that, the 5,000 sq. mile area held no other general-purpose bookstores. Just two children's bookstores, and around 10 Christian bookstores.
When Wal-Mart's the only game in town, after having driven most or all other retailers in town out of business, I think a new level of civic responsibility falls upon them. Similar to the way that a scrappy little operating system company in Albequerque can do as they wish, but when it moves to Redmond and becomes the dominant monopolist of the industry, new rules apply.
I'm not arguing for a law per se, but I think Wal-Mart, by taking over whole regions (one of their in-store slogans is "Why shop anywhere else?"), has now placed an ethical burden on itself.
No, Americans are hated the rest of the world over because the American populace sits at home and espouses the virtues of liberty and freedom while the organizations that bring in the money and resources to make such a society 'exist' as it does act in a totalitarian and domineering manner in the markets and societies the rest of the world over.
Like... how to create nuclear bombs and such...? Remeber, if we outlaw "pernicious information" only outlaws will have "pernicious information"...
unlike the situation in China, you can move if you want. Move to an area where you have choice, move to a place that will sell you mags that you want. Or if you don't want to move, open your own mag stand that sell all the mags that you want (and hopefully others will too). I don't think that Walmart effects the nation as much as it reflects the nation. People want bland entertainment void of the ideas that stimulate. Walmart is reflective of the status quo and if you don't like that, then please change it.
Since this is an AP story I looked for it on news.yahoo.com but couldn't find it anywhere. Yahoo wouldn't censor stories on their American news site - would they?
We won't because those plans no longer exist, if you're referring to the Saturn V. They were accidentally recycled (really!!) a long time ago by some school children. The children were on a paper drive and, when they stopped by NASA, some idiot gave them the boxes containing all of the blueprints. So if we wanted to go to the moon today, we'd have start over from scratch!!
I just got a Yahoo email account of censorchina@yahoo.com. Let's see how long that lasts ;)
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...here.
I think this is related to today's other yahoo censorship story. They told the Chinese they were "ridding the world of 'eval'" and somebody got a charachter wrong...
Meh, this is just temporary. Once free-market forces get a foothold on the untapped consumer base, and the vast majority of China's inhabitants turn into beer swilling, burger chowing, consumer goods purchasing capitalist critters, Yahoo will be back in all it's full western-style 'uncensored' glory.
Nice strategy Yahoo.
It's simply amazing how many people buy into the "China is good to it's people, country X could learn a thing or two..." Damn, I'd love to ship them out to China for a few years and live how the actual citizen lives. When was the last time they had to stare down a tank barrel in hopes of furthering your cause against YOUR government. Or hijack TV and Satillites because it's the ONLY way you can communicate through the oppression? These people are total head cases. I invite them to actually take a look at the Chinese constitution, a document fit for nothing better than to be used as toilet paper seeeing how far it deviates from actual practice. Here's a small introduction to it for anybody who is curious (in last month's ep of /.)
You need a FREE iPod Nano
If the late 90s taught us anything, it would be "greed is bad" and "check your numbers". Now, companies are selling their integrity for access to the Chinese market. Sadly, it's a good business move.
Stop the brainwash
See Subject.
Better some internet then none at all.
Its very hard to ban every corner of Internet, if they got some kind of access. And seens its hard to ban all.. Questions will arise why some stuff be banned and other dont. And when people see that stuff thats not realy dangerus be banned in random.. maybe something, slowly will happen to china.
Internet can only englighen the people, I beleave its terrible hard to ban everything. Unless you create an "China-Intranet".. and that would be a hell of work.
Yahoo has been doing as the Chinese government wants for ages - the relationship goes back awhile.
- HeXa
From the http://camerashy.thehacktivist.com/
site
"CAMERA/SHY OVERVIEW
Sometimes hiding the truth is the best way to
protect it, and yourself. Designed with the
non-technical user in mind, Camera/Shy's "one
touch" encryption process delivers banned
content across the Internet in seconds. Utilizing
LSB steganographic techniques and AES-256
bit encryption, this application enables users to
share censored information with their friends by
hiding it in plain view as ordinary gif images.
Camera/Shy is the only steganographic tool
that automatically scans for and delivers
decrypted content straight from the Web. It is a
stand-alone, Internet Explorer-based browser
that leaves no trace on the user's system. As a
safety feature Camera/Shy also includes
security switches for protection against
malicious HTML. Picture that."
Found this on Wired:
China's postal agency launched a new service this week that will enable computer users to have e-mails delivered in hard-copy form to recipients who don't have e-mail. The e-mails will be printed out by postal employees, placed into envelopes, and sent with the rest of the mail to the sender's assigned destination.
Oh, and it won't be read by anyone. A spokeswoman for China Post says so. "Mail is a private matter," the spokeswoman says. "There would be no reason for anybody to read it."
Rrrright...
Excellence: Moderate (mostly affected by comments on your karma)
So, who's censoring whom? Let's look in today's news...
, 00 .html
...
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,53873
{{{
Israel Blocks Palestinian ISP
By Noah Shachtman
For hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, getting to work, school or the market has been virtually impossible since Israel's latest anti-terror campaign began. Now, they won't be able to get online, either.
Early Monday morning, Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) troops took over the offices of Palnet, the leading Palestinian Internet service provider, shutting down the firm's operations. The move -- part of Israel's 3-week-old "Operation Determined Path," which has kept seven of the eight major Palestinian cities under strict curfew -- reduced Internet access to a trickle in the West Bank and Gaza.
"The Israeli army stormed the office building where six (Palnet) employees were believed to be staying in order to maintain Internet service during this difficult time," the Palestinian pro-democracy group Miftah said in a statement. "Explosions were heard and the fate of the six (Palnet) employees is unknown.
IDF sources verified that troops were operating in the Palnet building, but
could not confirm any details of the operation.
}}}
FP.
Also FatPhil on SoylentNews, id 863
When will people learn that if an American company is prepared to shit on another nation for profit, that they will have problem shitting on their own for the same reason? Greed knows no national boundaries.
Sure, they're going to be a bit more cautious over how they go about it, but at the end of the day you are no more important to these people than the Chinese, Iraqis or Afghans if you stand in the way of the profit machine. They despise you as much as they despise themselves, and tolerate you only as long as you are prepared to turn away and allow them to line their pockets.
You either work for a fair world or prepare to reap as you sew... and judging by the way the American economy is going, that could be sooner rather than later.
Still, I'm sure those champions of free trade and industry will be on hand to bale out the poor folks when the going gets tough.
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If only there was some way to cache a spare mod point for emergencies!
subject says it all...
"Just Smile and Nod." --Huck
Even in that magazine example, if your business is based solely on the help of one of your partners you are:
1) Fucked
2) Stupid
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