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Google Gives Up Fight Against Chinese Censorship

judgecorp writes "Google has abandoned its policy of warning Chinese users against keywords that trigger censorship. The search giant had added a warning that advised Chinese users not to use search terms that could cause the Chinese authorities to shut off their access to Google, but has now abandoned these warnings. While Google says they were ineffectual, free speech campaigners have expressed disappointment."

9 of 96 comments (clear)

  1. It's not Google's job to warn users... by mmell · · Score: 3, Informative
    ...about their government. If a Chinese citizen uses Google and searches for something which the People's Republic of China somehow considers unacceptable, it isn't Google's job to warn him - it's the citizen's job to understand the laws of his country and honor them as he/she sees fit.

    Now, if you want to complain about somebody, complain about the People's Republic of China. It's THEIR laws and policies which make this a threat to free speech, not Google's capitulation to the lawful government of China.

    1. Re:It's not Google's job to warn users... by serviscope_minor · · Score: 5, Insightful

      not Google's capitulation to the lawful government of China.

      Oh jeez, not this tired old bullshit again.

      Legality is *no* justification. Morality and legality are entirely separate separate things and should never be conflated.

      If you wish to Goodwin the thread there, then there are plenty of fine examples to illustrate the point.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    2. Re:It's not Google's job to warn users... by shentino · · Score: 5, Funny

      You're liable to get the spelling nazis on you most ironically with that post.

  2. Re:Could still insert the warning after the search by The+MAZZTer · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That's fairly pointless. Let's say I start typing "Tuna". My browser sends "Tuna" to Google's servers so it can get a list of suggested search phrases, including the two you provided. On its way to Google servers... it passes through Chinese ISP servers and I get flagged for searching for Tuna. Google's warning would come too late.

    Google's system, though I never saw it myself, sounds like it would have sent a list of banned words to the browser as part of the page, before the user searches. Then when the user starts typing, the browser will NOT send anything to Google with a banned word in it until the user addresses the warning displayed. Your idea, if adjusted properly to not send traffic to Google with banned words in it, would end up being only a minor variation of this.

  3. Re:It's okay, it's China by tripleevenfall · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Google isn't acclimating to their culture, I think they just realized that triggering the ire of the Chinese government is much less profitable than the alternative.

  4. While people here love posting don't be 'evil'... by tuppe666 · · Score: 3, Informative

    ...they do so to support a f*cking mega corporation that would sh*ts on them at a moments notice, for chance of extracting a few extra dollars from the customers. Google withdrew *alone* from China in a response to "evil"...What did they do when "Human Rights Watch praised the decision and urged other firms to follow suit in challenging censorship...on yeah right I remember *nothing*...Lets call them Microsoft who at the time by the "the Congressional-Executive Commission on China ...sharply criticized Microsoft for continuing to be complicit with China's censorship laws"...what about Apple??. Acting Alone Googles strategy was weak/stupid.

  5. IF YOU CAN'T BEAT 'EM by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Make 'em your BUSINESS MODEL.

    Google, selling you out since 2003.

    Rainey Reitman of the Electronic Frontier Foundation said that technically, it is indeed all legal, but she emphasized that people don't really understand how their random thoughts, disclosures or opinions on social media may be exploited.

    "I think people don't realize when they sign up for these sites that the government is going to be routinely monitoring and sifting through this data," she said.

    "If Coca-Cola is reading all my tweets," Dan Zarrella points out, "it's not as scary as if the DOD is reading all my tweets, right?"

    http://www.defensenews.com/article/20121113/DEFREG02/311130003/Unwitting-Sensors-How-DoD-Exploiting-Social-Media

    --
    "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
    Never been known to fail..."
  6. Re:SSL by fufufang · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Using SSL is ineffective, because the Chinese firewall active sends connection reset packets to disrupt your SSL connection.

  7. i'm really sick of this bullshit by circletimessquare · · Score: 5, Insightful

    there are plenty of cultural differences that are ok

    but violating people's basic rights can not be justified with references to culture

    this applies to problems in the west too, i'm not singling out china

    you can't say chinese people are happy being slaves, so let them be, it's just culture. or muslim women are happy being slaves, so let them be, it's just culture. or poor people in western nations leaning towards social darwinism as plutocrats warp the politics are happy being slaves, so let them be, it's just culture

    bullshit

    NO ONE is happy being a slave. culture is no excuse

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it