Posted on 02/03/2006 1:13:35 PM PST by WaterDragon
The only thing that was surprising about Google's decision to self-censor its China-based service was that people were surprised by it. In the general media coverage, there were many gleeful references to the company's motto - boasted of in the preface to its IPO prospectus - of 'Don't Be Evil' (a phrase which, at the time, caused Wall Street investment bankers to lie down in darkened rooms). How could people who wore those admirable values on their sleeves kowtow to a corrupt, authoritarian regime which tortures dissenters and denies elementary human rights to its unfortunate subjects?
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
Any kind of media exposure (other than gov) to the Chinese people is good. The Chinese government is trying to do something imposable and they will fail. Life will find a way, the US cant shut down music swappers and the Chinese will not be able to effectively prohibit free speech on the net. And as there people gain wealth (or at least a large segment) they will want freedom and Google will help censored or not.
Just typical.
Liberals.
Wrong. Who do you think you are....Dr. Ian Malcolm?
Anyways, all the prognostications that the Chinese wouldn't make their firewall work have been proven wrong. And a lot of the cockey Chinese hackers who thought as you do are now in Lao Gai prison camps.
* The Great Wall of China was originally created to keep Chuck Norris out. It failed miserably.
To all google sponsors,
Do you endorse using Google as an enforcement arm of the Chinese Communist Party?
Please reply.
Your Customers.
What's more pathetic is dismissing your opponent's argument without refuting it. Google.com is often unavailable in China, Google.cn let's its users know when their results are being censored, and having information that would otherwise be unavailable is a boon to the Chinese people. Why is this so hard to understand?
Chuck Norris does not hunt because the word hunting implies
the probability of failure. Chuck Norris goes killing.
Not necessarily. Searching for "Tiannamen" and having pages of government lies come back is worse than having the search blocked altogether.
But, again, Google.cn let's its users know that their results are being censored. If they want uncensored results, they can then switch over to Google.com and get them.
You're wasting your time.
I agree this story is overblown, as long as acess is allowed to google.com. Now if China starts redirecting traffic from China to the google.cn site, well google will have to eat their words.
The best bet is to force any internet service which restrics traffic to prevent dissent in another country to deal with a loss of income in this country (their primary market). The most powerful economic tool of the 20th century, while illegal, is secondary boycotts.
Now it's just "don't be eviler than our competition."
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.