Yahoo China has the Worst Filtering Policy

rmunaval writes "Reporters Without Borders has an article on search-result censorship in China by different companies. The conclusion was made based on six politically sensitive keywords. A search on yahoo.cn resulted in 97% pro-Beijing results compared to 83% on google.cn and 78% on msn.cn." From the article: "[Yahoo!] is therefore censoring more than its Chinese competitor Baidu. Above all, the organisation was able to show that requests using certain terms, such as 6-4 (4 June, date of the Tiananmen Square massacre), or 'Tibet independence', temporarily blocked the search tool. If you type in one of these terms on the search tool, first you receive an error message. If you then go back to make a new request, even with a neutral key word, yahoo.cn refuses to respond."

Comments

Ahh Freedom

[dunezone]

China: Filthy Democracy! You have no respect for us Chinese! Democracy: He ripped my arms off! China: Shut up! I didn't rip them! Republic: China, your making it worse. China: Go back to your strip malls... where values are king.

Yet another anti-China news item

[Pao|o]

Blah blah... Yahoo China follows local laws & censors. Blah blah... Google China follows local laws & censors. Americas & other democracies are outraged and yet not dare do an all out embargo or else goods will skyrocket in price so they go after businesses that follows the legitimate laws of China.

Re:Yet another anti-China news item

[Doc Ruby]

If the government is bad, what's wrong with an anti-government news item? Unless you're the government...

Sound familiar anyone?

[SuperBanana]

I was curious about the "hundred flowers" bit you cited, as I'd never heard of it. Wikipedia to the rescue (of my hideously bad middle-school/high-school education, which consisted mostly of "HOLOCOST BAD, REALLY REALLY REALLY BAD" and the US Civil war. (Vietnam war? Haha. Not even -mentioned-. And this was in the mid 90's!)

After the campaign was officially declared over, Mao's resentment for the intellectual population had accumulated. Continuing with an Anti-Rightist Movement he had began a few years previous, he reasoned that the intellectuals were the basis of all existing problems. Mao ordered arrests of counter-revolutionaries on the basis of their letters and punished many harshly, using torture and capital punishment without any form of trial.

Why could I not help but think of the (Bush) White House choke-hold on scientists (literally- someone in the White House censors anything put out by gov't scientists on Global Warming), its favoring of religion over science, and its (or rather the GOP's) constant screaming about how the "liberals" (ie, educated, intelligent, fairly secular people) are out to destroy "the country".

Oh, and the bit about "torture and capital punishment without any form of trial" kinda hit the point home. Granted Bush hasn't gone any massive "cultural" "purges", but it kind of makes you wonder...

Re:Olympics

[Danse]

China is a right-wing fantasy country. Activists automatically get beaten and arrested, blind loyalty to the government and its leaders is heavily promoted, businesses are allowed to run amok, the military is doted on, workers are exploited to their limits, and information is completely regulated by the government. Republicans must be dying of envy.

Umm.. close but not likely. They aren't allowed to own guns, and most of them aren't too keen to worship our lord-n-savior. Those are generally republican deal-breakers.