Good luck to Google and Alta Vista in trying to bring down the blockade.
Regards, Ivan
Posted on 09/12/2002 3:54:27 AM PDT by MadIvan
AltaVista has hit back at the Chinese ban on its search engine, promising to find alternative ways to reach China's 46 million surfers.
The US-based site is the second search engine to fall foul of the Chinese Government's strict censorship of the web after Google was banned last week.
The company said it was very concerned to find that AltaVista.com and AltaVista.co.uk were inaccessible in China.
"Free access to information is the cornerstone of our mission," said General Manager of AltaVista International Kevin Eyres.
Limited information
"We have tried to contact the Chinese consulate in the US but have had no response from them so far," he added.
Some of AltaVista's international addresses remain accessible in China and users can use translation tools to read pages in Mandarin Chinese.
An experimental site that AltaVista used to test new technology - raging.com - is also now carrying the main AltaVista page.
China has the second largest web audience behind the US but the government in Beijing is keen to limit the amount of information available to citizens.
As well as controlling the main internet service providers (ISPs) in the country, the government also uses internet filters to block access to sites run by banned groups and some foreign news organisations such as the BBC.
This has been dubbed the Great Red Firewall of China.
Web hijacks
It has been reported that Google's web address has been hijacked by government-approved ISPs. Users are being rerouted to Chinese sites.
Mr Eyres said that AltaVista had had "unconfirmed reports" of the same thing happening to its web addresses.
"It is difficult for people to tell exactly what is happening," he said.
Whatever the situation, AltaVista is keen to find a quick resolution.
"We want to put an end to this cat and mouse game with the sites being blocked. We really want to understand how we can provide an uncompromised product in China," said Mr Eyres.
Some firms including Yahoo have signed up to a pledge, promising to remove any material deemed unsuitable by the government from its site.
Good luck to Google and Alta Vista in trying to bring down the blockade.
Regards, Ivan
I like that phrase. Catchy! :-)
"We want to put an end to this cat and mouse game with the sites being blocked. We really want to understand how we can provide an uncompromised product in China," said Mr Eyres.
Geez..."uncompromised"?
Asking how to make your content acceptable to the ChiComs? Of course, you compromise and do as they say. If Alta Vista just rolled over like the putz's at Yahoo, then the Internet-surfin' chinese could see their advertising banners too.
After all, isn't that their real aim. The ChiComs can pull the plug and eliminate outside access any time they want.
Yahoo agreed to censor their news and spin things the way Beijing likes it spun. Its not just in China either. If anyone tries to happen by news about China via yahoo, they are going to get the spun version.
I have been watching news about China for a long time, and I have seen a noticeable difference in the coverage. Yahoo is now the mouthpiece for the CCP on the net. Its the Ren Min Ri Bao of the internet.
They want to sway American ways of thinking and Yahoo agreed to help. Its not about porn, because yahoo is so full of the stuff for a surfer, that anyone looking can find it. Its politics.
Now because of this willingness to play ball, Yahoo is getting rewarded. If companies want to target China, Google and Alta Vista are now gone buh-bye. The choice is either a Chinese company, or Yahoo.
They basically opened up a big funnel to force money into Yahoo. If companies want to advertise in China, its gotta happen via Yahoo.
Killing the competition for political purposes. This is exactly what "guan-xi" is. So much for the WTO "we-are-going-to-open-our-markets" BS.
Yeah, they will open their markets, just so long as you do what they say....
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.