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Google Suggest Disabled In China Due To Porn

Posted by kdawson on from the selective-harassment dept.

I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "The Chinese government has asked Google to disable Google Suggest because it has been suggesting that people search for pornography based on its analysis of the most popular search terms in China. This comes on the heels of a fake CCTV interview being used to support the government requirement that all new computers ship with the 'Green Dam' Internet censoring program, which is still in force, despite reports to the contrary." The story on the chinaSMACK site demonstrates that Chinese search engine Baidu features a comparable search-suggestion function, which similarly recommends adult-themed sites, but that the government has not attacked Baidu over the issue of porn.

20 of 106 comments (clear)

  1. Why Is Chinese Censorship News On Slashdot??!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Let's face it, the Chinese government censors and blocks whatever they feel like, the Chinese people know and accept it.
    So why does slashdot post these stories anytime XXX blocks/censors anything in China? Let's face it, it's not news anymore. It doesn't affect my rights online or anybody else's outside China.

    1. Re:Why Is Chinese Censorship News On Slashdot??!! by Darkness404 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      ...Its Google, its an American company. They can do the same thing over here. When you think about it and the recent "block everything" mentality from both democrats and republicans, soon China's internet might just be your internet.

      --
      Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
    2. Re:Why Is Chinese Censorship News On Slashdot??!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      No you are wrong. They can't do the same thing over here. We have something called the rule of law here. We have a 1st Amendment. The stuff that happens in China can't even be remotely applied to the United States. Please stop this slippery slope nonsense.

    3. Re:Why Is Chinese Censorship News On Slashdot??!! by delta419 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Can I sell you my tinfoil hat?

    4. Re:Why Is Chinese Censorship News On Slashdot??!! by Meshach · · Score: 2, Insightful

      To hell with China.

      Unfortunately I suspect that the billions of people in Chine will be too big a market for a company like Google to pass up. A non-profit company like wikipedia may refuse to censor but I doubt you will get a similar response from a for-profit business. That big a market is too big to pass up.

      --
      "Maybe this world is another planet's hell"
      Aldous Huxley
    5. Re:Why Is Chinese Censorship News On Slashdot??!! by tchdab1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yes we have the rule of law.
      We have due process, yet we know of people held by our government for years without trial.
      We have the Geneva conventions, yet we know people have been recently tortured by our government.
      We have the right against unlawful search, yet we know the government has been listening on our domestic correspondence without permission from the courts.
      We have the right against unlawful seizure, yet the government regularly seizes items (such as cash and property) it considers unlawful and without process.
      Congress alone can declare war, yet we have armies engaged without war being declared.

      What's one more stupid internet filter in light of all this?
      If you don't act to maintain your rule of law, you will lose it.

    6. Re:Why Is Chinese Censorship News On Slashdot??!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      What's one more stupid internet filter in light of all this?

      You forgot a really important one.

      The customs area at entry points to the US is now declared to be "in no country". Therefore customs officers can inspect, seize and retain for an unlimited time (eighteen months and counting, in at least one case) any object they care to.

      You would think that "in no country", your rights as an American citizen would follow you. Not so. Some who are familiar with the New Testament may remember that the apostle Paul was once arrested and bound somewhere in the Roman Empire. He had only to say, "I am a Roman citizen" and his captors could not have made greater haste to release his bonds. It was a staple of Roman law that a Roman citizen could not be bound. Penalties for doing so were severe.

      As a result of this US policy, some large corporations will do a clean install on a laptop to protect proprietary or trade secret data. A complete, restorable backup is then transmitted to the foreign destination. Before return, the offsite backup is destroyed and a clean system is reinstalled.

      Apropos of government power over information, I'm now listening to a program on PBS about premonitions. One woman canceled a flight to the UN on 9/11 because of a premonition. Canceling such a trip is most strongly discouraged. In response to an idle comment where the interviewer wondered how many people had canceled flights that day, it turns out that any available data that has been collected by the airlines on such cancellations has been seized by the FBI and will not be made available for study or analysis.

    7. Re:Why Is Chinese Censorship News On Slashdot??!! by Mr2001 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Due process only applies to citizens.

      False. The 14th Amendment reads, in part, "nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law". Any person, not any citizen; the writers knew the difference.

      --
      Visual IRC: Fast. Powerful. Free.
  2. miibeian.gov.cn by sakdoctor · · Score: 2, Funny

    That site must have some freaking amazing pagerank, since every single site hosted in China is required to register and link to it.

  3. Protectionism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    China is just doing this to give its own search engines a competitive edge. It does this with the film industry by only allowing 10 foreign films to be shown in China per year.

    1. Re:Protectionism by hackingbear · · Score: 3, Interesting

      That's generally correct. And we can't do anything about it because China is our largest bank that gives us the biggest credit lines. They are now too big to fail as well. Before they became our Big Bank; they were our biggest allied fighting the Soviets in the 70s and 80s, and so the US had to give in to their demand as well. That's called deals.

      For companies like Google, the easiest solution is just to buy up some right officials (via hidden means,) then everything will be fine. China has their weak spot too. In China, you can accomplish anything big by bribing some officials; illegal but doable. In the US, you can accomplish anything big by contributing to the campaign of some politicians, legal and doable.

    2. Re:Protectionism by ScrewMaster · · Score: 3, Interesting

      In the process of replacing the USA, china will go thru all the same step.

      All you America-bashers out there should listen to this particular A.C. Ask yourself this question: will the world be a better place when America is dead and gone and the Chinese government is running the show?

      I know a lot of you hate us, but be very, very careful what you wish for. Not that it matters: all empires, whether they be military or strictly economic (like ours) eventually disappear. If you're such an empire, if you're lucky you just fade away ... if you're not, your successor destroys you or occupies you. Whatever, I'm just annoyed that it's likely to happen in my lifetime. I was kinda hoping that I'd be dead and gone before we go the way of the Dodo bird, but due to the three most basic human emotions exhibited by our government and corporate leaders (e.g., greed, greed, and, well, greed, with a healthy helping of shortsightedness, treason and general stupidity) the process is happening far more quickly than I'd prefer.

      Do I blame China for what's happening to us? Nope. I blame us, because we're too goddamned STUPID to protect what our ancestors built for us, to protect our own interestes. We set up a free candy store, and the Chinese (and everyone else who wanted a free kickstart into the 21st century) just came in and took whatever they wanted, and when that wasn't enough, we gave them everything else. Now, most of us don't actually like that very much, but since we've elected an entire generation of fools and sellouts, we're kinda screwed now. Our Native American friends made much the same mistake. Huh, I guess history does repeat itself after all.

      --
      The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
  4. Filtering is the Hijab of the Internet by unlametheweak · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The day that government's and people in general get over their neurotic reactions to pornography is the day when you will see Authoritarianism die and Civilization flourish. Pornography, like it or lump it, is a signpost of Civilization and Freedom.

    1. Re:Filtering is the Hijab of the Internet by Celeste+R · · Score: 3, Insightful

      And from their point of view, pornography is the symptom of undisciplined actions, as well as overextending the activities of people in ways that are ultimately futile.

      Both oversimplified points of view are the result of popularized culture.

      The day when people in general get embrace moderation (the old definition; the kind that keeps things from becoming a controlling factor) and education (not institutionalized, but the uninhibited growth of the mind) will be the day when you see civilization truly start to flourish.

      Our own propagandized signposts of civilization or authoritarianism often serve to cover up the ugly truth.

      --
      There are no perfect answers, only the right questions. More questions at http://foresightandhindsight.blogspot.com/
    2. Re:Filtering is the Hijab of the Internet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Dual-mindedness is a very human trait. Why do we lie when we know the truth? Why do we cover up what is shameful to us? Human psychology is funny like that.

      Is it funny? It seems pretty straight-forward, to me. Self-control is necessary for a functioning society. Exerting self-control is far more difficult when tempted. Thus, some people may seek to ban temptations to help themselves (and, secondarily, their societies) maintain self-control. Attempts to ban "pornography" are one example of this.

      Societies more accepting of pornography could, indeed, be considered "more intelligent," if the reason they're more accepting is that they have more self-control (a triumph of intelligence over instinct).

  5. New name suggestion? by 427_ci_505 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Google Suggestive.

  6. Accurate? by supernova_hq · · Score: 2

    My guess is that if google is suggesting porn, then it is probably for a reason...

    Sir! Sir! I type "hot naked" into google and it suggested girls! We must stop this monstrosity!!!!

  7. My favorite Google Suggest search terms by MillionthMonkey · · Score: 2, Funny

    why is everything

    Try typing that in.

  8. Re:Baidu benefits from being Chinese by Uber+Banker · · Score: 2, Informative

    And sadly it's nothing special. When typing a URL that doesn't resolve on a mainland China ISP a Baidu-sponsored search page (full of ads, no simple search box) appears. It was only in 2006 when google.com itself was redirected to baidu.com by some ISPs some of the time. Some of the country (in major cities, forget the countryside) has the facade of development, but with basic corruption endemic at the bottom and top levels, it has a whole lot further to go.

  9. Green Dam is not mandarory to run by trendzetter · · Score: 2, Informative

    The software is required to be delivered with by manufacturers on harddisc or one CD. It was never intended to be required to run as a user [wikipedia.org]. The scope of the software is mainly parental control. This hole thing in the media about censorshipware sounds like yet another propaganda campagne by the West.