Slashdot Mirror
Google Targeted By Anti-Censorship Movement
wormnet.org writes "An article has been posted on The Observer reporting that Google has been targeted by the group "Students For A Free Tibet" because of the internet company's relationship with the Chinese government. The article states: "... more than 50,000 letters have been sent to Google bosses in recent days protesting at the company's decision to censor searches on its google.cn website in line with Beijing's wishes. Protesters have also staged public 'break-ups' with Google at demonstrations outside many of its offices around the world.""
Don't blame Google, blame China.
Without the restrictions Google can not do business in China.
Intresting to note are the "small" diffrencens on the two Google sites google.com and google.cn.
Tiananmen with tanks:
http://images.google.com/images?q=tiananmen
Tiananmen with happy people:
http://images.google.cn/images?q=tiananmen
Ones again, blame China.
Looks like their website (studentsforafreetibet.org) still comes up 4th in a search for "free tibet" on Google China...:here
--- You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you mad- Neal (not Cowboy) Boortz
Google is censoring as per the Chinese Gov. But so is MSN and Yahoo. The difference is that Google will tell the person that an item was censored, whereas MSN and Yahoo will not be doing that. As a user, I would hate the censoring. But I would hate much more NOT being informed exactly when I was being censored. This guys should either be going after all search engines or should push the others to be more like Google.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
From the FAQ:
Q: What about Yahoo! and Microsoft etc., they're already doing this?
A:We deplore Yahoo and Microsoft's actions as well but as the industry leader, Google's impact is enormous. Google's decision to create its product to the Chinese authorities' specifications sets a very dangerous precedent of bringing the most advanced technology to the most closed and repressive government under the guise of effecting change. More importantly, the launch of Google.cn is a reversal of Google's policy of non-cooperation with China's internet censorship program.
If this isn't a sign of bias, I don't know what is. I've also noticed that when you search for Microsoft, 8 out of 11 times they are comparing Microsoft to Google, and Microsoft's equally abysmal record is always glossed over and not gone into detail like they do with Google. This smells like media manipulation to me. Yahoo and Microsoft must be both loving this.
We really should be protesting censorship world wide. And not just in China.
Do you really think that a letter to foreign companies, or an occassional rally, is going to change the policies of the Chinese government? I don't think ANYTHING will change the policies of the Chinese governments. There is no democracy at all in China, it is not a Republic like America where at least we have a constitution, China as far as I know has no constitution. There is nothing at all that a Chinese worker can do in China to influence policy except work hard, get rich, move to America, and pressure China from within Google. If these people want to influence Googles policies, or free China, they'd be better off working with Google from within Googles offices than trying to send a letter to Google. They would be better off building the next freenet, or doing something useful and constructive with their time than sending a letter to business owners.
Seriously, this is silly. If someone wants to fight Global warming do you think the best way to do it would be to send a letter to the tabacco and oil companies? Do you really think that Phillip Morris or any of these company execs will even read such a letter? Do you actually think Google will even care about this? This actually gives Google ammo, because now Google can use this letter to frame the debate, and use their high powered lawyers and scientists to pick it apart.
and her famous "just say no" to drugs catchphrase from the 1980s?
she was ridiculed for that, and rightly so, as "just say no" to drugs is a blatant simpleton's oversimplification of a complex problem
well guess what? "don't be evil" is the same sort of hilarious oversimplification, and i'm kind of surprised at the slashdot crowd for not rolling in the aisles laughing at google for this phrase
i'm really just waiting for the residual effects of being smitten with google in the early 2000s to wear off on the slashdot crowd, when google was a hugely popular upstart, and rightly so... back then
i'm waiting for the slashdot crowd to finally wake up to the fact that, whatever google was, it is now just another huge multinational, as much to be reviled or loved as oracle or microsoft
i sorely missing the usual amount of healthy criticism i get from the slashdot crowd when it comes to the subject of google. everyone here handles them with kid gloves, and i don't think it is appropriate anymore
slashdot crowd: wake up, google is not your cute litle revolutionary upstart search engine from the early 2000s. it is an entirely different beast now, and you need to update your state of rapture with them, and start looking at them a lot more critically
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Would you do something 'immoral' to survive? What if you were in a war and the opposing army did something unscrupulous and the only way to survive is to fight fire with fire? Killing is immoral, wouldn't you kill someone to save yourself if it was your only option to survive?
What if you were CEO of a company and your competitors were appealing to a repressive government to bank on a country with 1.3 billion people? Would you let your company burn? In this case, what if the only difference from not partaking is that your company does not get to do business with Wal-Mart's sweatshop (that's a reference to china incase you missed it), and that the citizens are still censored from the same material?
I do not know what I would do. I am guessing that China generates a lot of revenue for google, and either choice google makes, the people of China will still be censored from content. I am slightly disappointed with GOOG's decision.
You want the market, you censorship the contents;
You want the money, you do some evil;
You want to play the game, you obey the rules...
Well, it's good to provide something rather than nothing....
twitter.com/xuyihua
All these complaints against Google (especially from the US government) seem rather hypocritical, given that Google has already been censored with the DMCA.
Ok, the censored sites are viewable by reading the takedown notice, but why is it perfectly ok for Google to be censored by US laws and not Chinese laws? Chinese laws may be much worse at the moment but the principal is still the same.
Why villify Google when all americans have personnaly contributed to devaluated human rights over the last few years through our passivity?
I mean, seriously folks, our fearless (Brainless?) leader has really kicked the US over the edge and down the slippery slope to "1984"/Dictatorial style government over the last 8 years and we haven't even so much as flinched while it was happening!!!
And these are the same fools that are horribly concerned with Google's operation in China? As John Stossel would say, "Give me a Break!"
Did the US government not grant China 'Favored Nation' status? Google is doing the best it can and operating in a completely LEGAL manner. They are operating in China b/c the US allows them to.
Stupid & Ultimately Failed Middle East Policies (US sanctioned assinations, coup's, arming fundamentalists, Supporting Isreal's opression of the palestinians, etc...)
Rise of Terrorism (Gee whiz, I wonder why they are so upset?)
Unification of 'Private' Media Conglomerates
'Special' Interest Groups (I equate 'special', in this case, with retarded - groups usually concerned with protectionism tactics - unconcerned or ingnorant of the consequences)
Gulf Wars, I & II (Both Cases built upon 'faulty intelligence' and/or outright lies)
Patriot Act (Holding people without charges, indefinitely; Kangaroo courts)
State Sanctioned Torture... 'nuf said
NSA spying without Court Approval (Further errosion of US 'Checks and Balances')
China? CHINA?
Jesus people! Why don't you worry about the train wreck happening in your back yard before imposing your high moral standard on the neighbors.
This is more evidence that the state control/bias of the 2-3 major US media outlets is continueing to pay them huge dividends!
Sorry for the interuption, you may now go back to sleep...
To the protestors: Don't go running off to tell other countries / businesses that they're doing something wrong, when you can't even make a phone call without knowing if Big Brother is watching. You'd think that people who value freedom of speech would also value privacy.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2053731645 001034711
I'm in the USA and what I'm seeing on this page is: This video is not playable in your country.
So for all the people saying "blame China, not Google," now do we blame Google or the USA?
rooooar
This page at Google Video seems to suggest it is.
Currently people in New Zealand and Singapore can view the video just fine.