US Lawmakers to Keep Google Out of China?

caese writes "USATODAY is reporting that lawmakers in the US are proposing legislation that would keep Google and others out of China. From the article: 'Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., is drafting a bill that would force Internet companies including Google, Yahoo and Microsoft to keep vital computer servers out of China and other nations the State Department deems repressive to human rights.'"

Comments

Re:So...

[MightyMartian]

The US government, for all its problems on the human rights front, is by and large, and infinitely friendlier nation to its citizens than China. While I think, even on the Internet front, the US needs to back off a bit, to compare China's large-scale censoring of the Net to anything the US does is ridiculous.

The real problem here is that this move is idiotic. US Internet companies will simply open up shell companies (if they haven't done it already) to operate their branch sites on soil that the US deems non-rights compliant. In short, it's a waste of time. Congress has much better ways to makes its displeasure with China's continued human rights abuses known than forbidding Google to operate in China.

That all being said, Google is still a friend to tyrants, happily profiting from China's fear of its citizens hearing the truth.

Re:Let me be the first to say...

[voice_of_all_reason]

Given the repeated insinuation that American Software Engineers are worthless in comparison to the great and glorious India Institute of Technology graduates (after all, why else have an H-1b program to make Americans unemployed and bring them here), I think that end for Google or any other software company is unaviodable at this point

Well, outsourcing your lowest-level jobs to India is one thing. Moving there and having your new board of directors babbling "durka durka durrr" all day is something entirely different.