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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.
Except in China.
Or where we have to in order ot make (more) money.
Or when it seems like a good idea at the time.
I shouldn't be surprised. It's the natural evolution of a small, innovative company with some moral backbone into just yet another big company. Still, I'm disappointed in you, Google. You were once better than this.
So in essence all that posturing about defending human rights, freedom of expression and standing against censorship was a marketing ploy to try to mask their acceptance and embracing of totalitarian practices, all in order to worship the all mighty dollar (or euro, yen, or any other currency).
This makes articles such as http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/03/22/china-google-withdrawal-shows-government-intransigence">this one, where Google is praised for their support for basic human rights, was in essence a exercise in hypocrisy.
Slashdot, fix your code or at least hire someone who is competent at it to do it for you.
This whole thing was just saber-rattling in retaliation for China trying to steal some of their source code. It was nothing more than a big PR show from the get-go. They censored before the theft, and it was only a matter of time before they went right back to censoring. Money always wins, and China has all the money these days.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Google promised to 'obey Chinese law' and avoid linking to material deemed a threat to national security or social stability
So basically Chinese Google will not be connected to the internet.
Google is being the nigger here, no question about it. Suck it, fanboys. Keep using Chrome you fuckasses.
The products we have kept on Google.cn (Music, Translate, Product Search) do not require any censorship by Google.
Quickly, flood the internet with listings for books about the Tiananmen Square protests!
What we really need is a slashdotter in China that can verify what is happening first hand. What?! no slashdotters in China?!?!!? they must be blocking /. as well :)
I could have sworn that Google bowed to China's censorship demands once before, and then retracted the censorship policy after wide-spread outcry. Or am I just misremembering things?
No, you're not misremembering. It's just that the Google fanboys have a very selective memory.
Need proof? Here's something I posted 09July:
But wait -- as early as January of this year Google was still censoring its search results. And the only reason why Google decided that censorship was not in its best interests is due to the Google hacks that were uncovered early this year. Do you really believe Google said "fuck you" out of the goodness of their collective hearts? Reality proves otherwise: What goes on in China affects Google's bottom line, and since censorship was no longer profitable for them, they decided to become "good citizens."
Guess what? The Google fanboys modded it down to -1. <deity> forbid the real truth about Google comes out...
Oh, and here's what's really interesting: Those of us outside China really don't know what's going on with google.cn, because it's redirected to google.com.hk. I'd like to see independent confirmation here that google.cn is not redirected to the HK site from within China's Great Firewall.
tosses away the very American Ideals that made it possible for the opportunity to suck at china's cock.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
It may be oppression (with the obvious pointer to "terrorist" versus "freedom fighter" issues that can apply to the term), but if it is done to prevent a riot or public uprising then it would technically be a move to stop a threat to "social stability". The impact and the intent can be slightly detached, even if the intent defines why they want the impact.