Chinese Man Sues State-Owned Cell Phone Company For Blocking Google

jfruh writes China is notorious for censoring the Internet for its citizens, and access in the country became particularly spotty last year as the government tried to block any commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the Tiannamen Square massacre. But now one Chinese man is striking back through the courts. A 26-year-old legal practitioner is suing his cell phone company, the government-owned China Unicom, and demanding a refund for periods in which he was unable to access Gmail or Google's Hong Kong search page.

Comments

Good luck. Nice knowing you.

[Anonymous Coward]

The rule of law isn't quite ready for prime time in China. I applaud his courage, but I'm afraid he will wind up some place unpleasant. Deng Xiaoping made a deal with the people after Tienanmen: capitalism, as long as the Chinese Communist Party remains in control. This would strike at that control. The CCP, not the state, runs things.

Re:Good luck. Nice knowing you.

[K. S. Kyosuke]

If they've learned anything from Russia, they'll institutionalize him, because not liking your government is clearly a hallmark of a damaged mind.

Re:Good luck. Nice knowing you.

[Stargoat]

I'm not so sure about this. I could see an argument being made where the cell phone carrier blocked the service, and not the PRC government. Yes, the carrier was told to do so by the government (or CCP, which are not necessarily exactly the same thing). But, according to the PRC constitution, they are not allowed to censor needlessly. Rather than have the government lose face, the carrier is found to have needlessly censored.

I do not believe that this would cause any changes down the road, but this case in particular could be interesting.

Good luck

[Anonymous Coward]

Long Wang sure has a lot of balls to do this

Well done!

[Jonifico]

What the hell are they supposed to use? Altavista!?

OTOH, if he's NOT crazy stupid...

[rmdingler]

This is a good sign for China.

That a citizen believes he can openly criticize his government without peril means, at the very least, that public perception of China is improving.

Not to force a Snowden parallel, but he believed something like this once.

Re:Good luck with that.

[K. S. Kyosuke]

They're going to clone him before they shoot them?

Re:Just curious ...

[PPH]

China

One mistake

[StripedCow]

Unfortunately for him, the judge is also state-owned.

Where do I sign up?

[Rick in China]

Ok first of all - in China, you can certainly sue state owned enterprises. It's likely about as successful as say, suing a corporation in the US with massive lobbyists, of course, and the guy acknowledges this. Second - in his own words - he's making a statement. Where's the class action possibility, I'd love to see how ridiculous it would get if it was opened up to be a class action of sorts, given that we're talking about hundreds of millions of subscribers all with gripes about censorship. To all the dumb fucks commenting above this - why you gotta hate on someone trying to fight for his rights, isn't that the FOUNDATION of freedom and a founding principal of the rights in the nations many of you call home? Give me a break, rather than be a douchebag why not be supportive of this type of positive fight.

I dont think people understand whats going on

[voss]

China of 2014 is not the same as China of 1974.

Will his lawsuit win...uh probably not but hes following legal channels and not publicly protesting. In theory hes not suing the government
hes suing his cell phone company.