Some Google Searches Now Blocked In China

bannable writes with this from the Wall Street Journal: "Google Inc. said that its Web search service in mainland China was partially blocked Wednesday, the deadline for the company to extend its Internet operating license in the country. The company said the blockage appeared to affect only search queries generated by mainland China users of the company's Google Suggest function, which automatically recommends search queries based on the first few letters a user types into the search box."

Comments

Doesn't that happen anyways?

[Anonymous Coward]

When I type in "Hent" it doesn't prop up any suggested searches, despite there being a popular and obvious topic, even with safesearch off.

*AC to hide my dirty little secret.

Re:jack

[cparker15]

I agree that democracy and freedom of speech will be the ultimate final goal where Chinese government pursuits. However, they are not the most important issues in China now. In order to fix that, we have to fix poor and hunger now.

Democracy/freedom and poverty/hunger are not mutually exclusive issues. I'm sure that, with 1.5 billion people, China can manage to pool enough resources to multi-task and focus on more than one issue at a time.

Everything else you said is really just an attempt at justifying a perceived need for authoritarianism. Please understand one small, simple idea: There is never a need for authoritarianism.

Re:jack

[bhagwad]

India has 1.14 billion people - and the area is smaller too. Both have done a decent job so far at reducing slums and poverty given their restraints. So how come China needs to censor the Internet and remove freedom of expression when India is more or less ok with it?

Re:jack

[elrous0]

Legal != moral

It's illegal in a lot of nutball Muslim countries for a Muslim to convert to Christianity (by penalty of death). That doesn't mean I can escape criticism when my company starts helping the authorities hunt Christians by saying "Hey, I'm just obeying the law."