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Yahoo China has the Worst Filtering Policy

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the bad-image dept.

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."

6 of 184 comments (clear)

  1. 6-4 by BigNumber · · Score: 3, Funny

    That's odd... at google.cn 6-4 says 6-4=2.

    I can't find a flaw in that.

  2. Censoring? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny
    "[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."
    Actually, I think that's just how Yahoo! works in general.
  3. Re:'Worst' Filtering policy by B1ackDragon · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yeah, as much as I'm tempted to say that Yahoo is 16% more evil than Google, I think it's more likely that they are equally evil - Yahoo is just more competent at it.

    Unless of course, Google's poor censorship is on purpose, and it's their way of bringing freedom to the area. Then um, way to go?

    --
    The snow doesn't give a soft white damn whom it touches. -- ee cummings
  4. Re:Wow by reddeno · · Score: 2, Funny

    I would like to propose an addendum to Godwin's law, whereby all references to Tiananmen Square with respect to search engines immediately ends the thread, and whoever mentioned Tiananmen Square automatically loses any debate in progress.

  5. Ha! by calebtucker · · Score: 2, Funny

    You think the Chinese have it bad... I can only get to slashdot at work from 11:30 - 12:30! In the US even!

    --
    My sig can beat up your sig.
  6. wtf? by Chutulu · · Score: 2, Funny

    In Google.com if i search for 6-4 it displays 6 - 4 = 2 What kind of censorhip is this?? XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (censored) .....