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China Says Google Pledged To Obey Censorship Demands
bonhomme_de_neige writes "China renewed Google's internet license after it pledged to obey censorship laws and stop automatically switching mainland users to its unfiltered Hong Kong site, an official said. Google promised to 'obey Chinese law' and avoid linking to material deemed a threat to national security or social stability, said Zhang Feng, director of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's Telecoms Development Department, at a news conference."
Update: 07/21 21:56 GMT by S : Changed headline to reflect that this is mainly just China trying to paint a better picture of the outcome. In a comment on the linked article, a Google representative said, "This piece suggests that Google has 'bowed' to censorship. That is not correct. We have been very clear about our committment [sic] to not censor our products for users in China. The products we have kept on Google.cn (Music, Translate, Product Search) do not require any censorship by Google. Other products, like web search, we are offering from Google.com.hk, and without censorship." If you go to google.cn, you can see the prominent link to the Hong Kong version of the site.
>>>Should a government have the right to censor based upon the expected reactions from the public?
Never. The ultimate authority if the People, which is above all governments. When government seeks to censor photos or news articles, it flips that arrangement and becomes the Master while the people are demoted to children to be "cared for" and "protected." That's a reversion to pre-Enlightenment Middle Ages thinking.
Then my question to you would be: Why DO governments exist? I believe the answer is that governments exist, and their fundemental purpose is, to protect their citizens. So I could argue it is conceivably within the scope of government to protect innocents from riots and civil unrest. This includes censoring materials which would cause these actions.
I could argue the Rwandan genocide would not have happened if the government censored those individuals calling for violence before it got out of hand.
>The ultimate authority is the People, which is above all governments.
So you are saying if tomorrow everyone in china is open to having sex with a 4 year old, then the government should bow down and allow that to become ok within their law system, I don't think I quite know what to think of your proposal, although if we were all able to be like that, I think we could all agree what everyone wants to do to those bastards at BP.....too bad that isn't legal either...