Google Agrees to Censor Results in China

Breitbart ^ | 01/24/2006 | MICHAEL LIEDTKE

[Salo]

Online search engine leader Google Inc. has agreed to censor its results in China, adhering to the country's free-speech restrictions in return for better access in the Internet's fastest growing market.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based company planned to roll out a new version of its search engine bearing China's Web suffix ".cn," on Wednesday. A Chinese-language version of Google's search engine has previously been available through the company's dot-com address in the United States.

By creating a unique address for China, Google hopes to make its search engine more widely available and easier to use in the world's most populous country.

Because of government barriers set up to suppress information, Google's China users previously have been blocked from using the search engine or encountered lengthy delays in response time.

The service troubles have frustrated many Chinese users, hobbling Google's efforts to expand its market share in a country that expected to emerge as an Internet gold mine over the next decade.

China already has more than 100 million Web surfers and the audience is expected to swell substantially _ an alluring prospect for Google as it tries to boost its already rapidly rising profits.

Baidu.com Inc., a Beijing-based company in which Google owns a 2.6 percent stake, currently runs China's most popular search engine. But a recent Keynote Systems survey of China's Internet preferences concluded that Baidu remains vulnerable to challenges from Google and Yahoo Inc.

To obtain the Chinese license, Google agreed to omit Web content that the country's government finds objectionable. Google will base its censorship decisons on guidance provided by Chinese government officials.

Although China has loosened some of its controls in recent years, some topics, such as Taiwan's independence and 1989's Tiananmen Square massacre, remain forbidden subjects.

Google officials characterized the censorship concessions in China as an excruciating decision for a company that adopted "don't be evil" as a motto. But management believes it's a worthwhile sacrifice.

"We firmly believe, with our culture of innovation, Google can make meaningful and positive contributions to the already impressive pace of development in China," said Andrew McLaughlin, Google's senior policy counsel.

Google's decision rankled Reporters Without Borders, a media watchdog group that has sharply criticized Internet companies including Yahoo and Microsoft Corp.'s MSN.com for submitting to China's censorship regime.

"This is a real shame," said Julien Pain, head of Reporters Without Borders' Internet desk. "When a search engine collaborates with the government like this, it makes it much easier for the Chinese government to control what is being said on the Internet."

When Google censors results in China, it intends to post notifications alerting users that some content has been removed _ to comply with local laws. The company provides similar alerts in Germany and France when, to comply with national laws, it censors results to remove references to Nazi paraphernalia.

Google is cooperating with China's government at the same time it is battling the U.S. government over a subpoena seeking a breakdown of one week's worth of search requests _ a list that would cover millions of terms.

Reflecting its uneasy alliance with the Chinese government, Google isn't releasing all its services.

Neither Google's e-mail nor blogging services will be offered in China because the company doesn't want to risk being ordered by the government to turn over anyone's personal information. The e-mail service, called Gmail, creates a huge database of users' messages and makes them instantly searchable. The blogging services contain a wide range of personal background.

Yahoo came under fire last year after it provided the government with the e-mail account information of a Chinese journalist who was later convicted for violating state secrecy laws.

Initially, Google's Chinese service will be limited to searching Web pages and images. The company also will provide local search results and a special edition of its news service that will be confined to government-sanctioned media.

[Right Wing Assault]

Here are a few related links:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1399368/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1398507/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1397619/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1396921/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1396353/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1396346/posts

They also plan (or are currently doing it) to rate their search results based on 'quality', which means if it's from CBS it is high quality, but if it is from a conservative site, that is low quality. All you have to do is click through 150,000 hits to find the story.

[Para-Ord.45]

I use CLUSTY .

http://clusty.com/

[Mojave]

Online search engine leader Google Inc. has agreed to censor its results in China

But Google is refusing to assist our Justice Department's investigation of online pornography and perversion.

[tlj18]

Not true, Israel is listed.

[WilliamofCarmichael]

RE: I use Clusty.

So do I though sometimes I click on google when I am not sure of a spelling. It seems to me that google is very good at guessing what word I intended.

[thomaswest]

Conservatives like me have done very nicely by investing in Google.

This is free enterprise, y'know. Are you saying the guvmint should tell us where to put our money? This would be a very odd view for a FReeper.

As a basis in the 10 Commandments, Google has done nothing wrong. And it has done great for the USA.

Maybe you are just jealous.

[ShadowAce]

[N3WBI3]

Conservatives like me have done very nicely by investing in Google.

Hence you're willing to give them a pass for assisting a communist government oppress its people

This is free enterprise, y'know. Are you saying the guvmint should tell us where to put our money?

I suppose then you think Regan was wrong and should have opened up free trade with the soviet union? After all cant get in the way of free trade and your stock portfolio..

As a basis in the 10 Commandments, Google has done nothing wrong. And it has done great for the USA.

Wow you can pick a chapter out of the Bible and pass someone based on that. Remember the two greatest commandments Love the lord God with all your heart, and love your neighbor as you love yourself... Do you think helping an oppressive government (one the shuts down churches) is loving the people in that nation?

[antiRepublicrat]

Then they turn around and kiss the PRC's despotic behind?

They have to work with the laws of the countries they operate in, and here they think they can get away with it. It's sad that Google would even get in bed with the ChiComs (alongside Cisco, Microsoft and others), but you can see one thing that differentiates them. Rather than have to turn over personal info like Yahoo did, Google just won't offer those services that can ID dissidents.

[Blennos]

I am making a larger point here. Left-wing institutions, whether they be states or companies or non-profits, tend to follow a politically correct party line. Of late this party line has been increasingly anti-US, anti-Bush, anti-Israel, anti-capitalism, etc. You know the litany. It is not difficult to see this pattern realized when Israel, as a good example of a left-wing target, is "mistakenly" left off of a map of the Middle East during a UN briefing or, as in this case, on a Google map. How long before we start seeing maps without Texas or Arizona labeled for fear of offending the Mecha group?

I, for one, vote with my dollars. I will not use Google or buy French products or eat Ben and Jerry's ice cream or watch films with certain obnoxious anti-US actors.

The tendency for organizations in the Western World to show inordinate concern for the feelings of our enemies is galling to me. We go out of our way to demomnstrate respect for the Koran, but "Piss Christ" is a perfectly valid expression of artistic sentiment. I am sick to death of this nonsense.

[Bush2000]

Here, we totally agree. I'm not in favor of compromising our principles in order to promote trade. China is brutal. People are being jailed, tortured, and killed every day. Human life doesn't mean anything to the bastards in Beijing. I don't know how people sleep at night, no matter how fat their portfolios become. We share in the blame by helping them.

[Bush2000]

The tendency for organizations in the Western World to show inordinate concern for the feelings of our enemies is galling to me. We go out of our way to demomnstrate respect for the Koran, but "Piss Christ" is a perfectly valid expression of artistic sentiment. I am sick to death of this nonsense.

There's a reason for this. Liberals tend to embrace socialist and communist tyrants because they see those governments through an idealistic prism. They are devotees of the nanny state, and supporters of unions and entitlements. They want everyone to be "taken care of", and they are somehow willing to tolerate brutal oppression in exchange for Big Brother's cold embrace. I can't count the number of times that I've heard liberals point to Cuba's supposedly wonderful medical system; this, despite the fact that Castro regularly eliminates political dissidents. Similarly, for some sick reason, liberals seem to look at leftist ideologues like Che Guevara as some kind of fashion plate. It's pathetic. They don't even know what kind of evil they're embracing. Revolution just "feels all warm and fuzzy". Even if people get killed.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

I think that you can get around any political ranking of found items by subscribing to daily Google (news) Alerts with the keyword(s) of your choice. All the daily news centered around that keyword, relevant or otherwise, will be brought to you. For example, if you used the keyword "Republican-In-Name-Only," you would get conservative stuff relating to Lincoln Chaffee, Olympia Snow, Susan Collins, and John McCain.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Snow = Snowe (not that I care about spelling THAT PARTICULR SENATOR'S NAME wrong, but people tend to notice these things).