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Google Confirms Chinese Censorship Claims

UnanimousCoward writes "A spokesperson has responded to the 'censorship' questions in this article: '"Google has decided that in order to create the best possible search experience for our mainland China users we will not include sites whose content is not accessible," company spokeswoman Debbie Frost said Friday.'" Our original article ran on Wednesday.

8 of 515 comments (clear)

  1. big deal by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 5, Informative
    So...news.google.com, not the main engine, is being talked about here. And the articles not being shown are the ones that wouldn't show up anyway. And this is only for Chinese-language search. Yeah, Voice of America (voanews.com) is definitely blocked, BBC News too. I'm in China...other than a few news sites it's rare I get blocked, and when I do, I just use a regular squid proxy to get by.

    Doing no evil doesn't necessarily mean Google has to be the progressive cause for change," Li said. "(In China), they are saying, 'This is the law of the land, and there is nothing we can do to change it.'"

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    Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
  2. Re:Censorship? Not really. by Dutchmaan · · Score: 4, Informative

    Whereas under Communism it is a single party or small group of people who rule.

    Communism is an *economic system* not a political system.

  3. Re:Would it be better if China took Google offline by k98sven · · Score: 5, Informative

    If Google indexed banned sites, then they would still be available via Google's cache.

    Nope. China already blocks Google's cache, as well as most proxies they can find.

    Would it be better if China took Google offline entirely?

    Not from their point of view. It's a too obvious a form of censorship. They want to maintain the illusion of freedom as much as possible. That's why they don't want Google listing these banned pages to begin with; it makes the censorship more obvious.

  4. This is the problem with the Google IPO by urdine · · Score: 2, Informative
    Now that Google is a publicly held stock, they have a law-bound duty to uphold the interests of their stockholders, which means abiding by the Chinese government's restrictions.

    If they gave the ol' middle finger to China, they would be banned from China, which is the most populous country in the world. For this, Google would be held liable and John Q. Public could sue Google for negligence. The problem is really a problem with the institution of the corporation. I recommend watching The Corporation - an eye-opening documentary. My favorite line from this movie compares corporations to sharks - they are not necessarily evil, but are designed by their nature to do harm for their own benefit. The sad truth is, Google doesn't have the option to be a benevolent ubersite anymore.

  5. Re:I agree. However... by cyfer2000 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Google was blocked by China for certain time last year.

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    There is a spark in every single flame bait point.
  6. Re:Not only China by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    The difference between the censorship laws in Europe and those in China, is that the European laws are a result of the will of the people. In China, they are simply the result of a facist dictatorship who wishes to impose it's will on the people. This is a very clear-cut difference in my opinion, and to compare the two is rather silly.

  7. Re:That's fair enough by znode · · Score: 2, Informative

    I can confirm that, being there for the summer. Google cache is not accessible from mainland China.

  8. Re:Not necessarily by GNAA+Goat-See · · Score: 0, Informative

    The Christmas Islands government suspended www.goatse.cx for objectionable content - it could spread into the USA eventually.