Internet giant Google has said that the feud with China over Internet censorship may force them to choose between accepting censorship or leaving Chinese markets, and if it comes down to the ultimatum, the company would choose to leave.
Speaking to the Foreign Affairs Committee, Google´s VP said: "Google is firm ... it will stop censoring our search results for China. If the option is that we´ll shutter our .cn operation and leave the country, we are prepared to do that."
Republican Rep. Dana Rohrbacher said that while Google´s speech was commendable: "Our praise shouldn´t be for an intent, our praise should be for accomplishing what has been set out."
Google will not be operating in China unless they are willing to play ball wit that country government.
They said they wont play ball, and the Chinese government doesn´t ´give a rats ass´ about what Google wants to do. China will always choose to control the information its citizens have access to.
I don´t know what all the fuss is about. Many countries have been filtering the ´net.
I was in China a few weeks ago and had no problems surfing, tho´ I didn´t really put it to big test. I live in Korea and have been noticing an increasing number of websites are inaccessible.
I have found many US sites that don´t allow content to be viewed overseas. Simple things like watching a short trailer of a TV show etc.
Censorship is everywhere, not just China.
Geez! I like Google. I like China. I say stop fighting you two! .
Sometimes you can´t access copywrited material from an overseas IP. It´s a bit like the BBC´s iplayer, you´re fine provided you´re watching from a UK IP address however my old works proxy went through Germany so content on the BBC Site was blocked. US readers have a look and you´ll see what I mean http://www.bbc.co.uk/...
This is understandable :)
Back on subject though...
Got to admire Google for standing by it´s principles and litterally turning its back on money. Very unusual for a multinational these days... I won´t go into it any further as this is a works proxy and our American Overlords are watching! :P
Yeah, there´s a lot of those but I´m referring to censored stuff. Have been getting redirected to warning sites more frequently these days. I used to be able to get there from... not any more.
What the Chinese government is doing is much more that censoring some sites.
In this case the Chinese government is expecting Google to filter their results so that Chinese citizens are never even presented with search results other than to links that Chinese government approves of.
Chinese officials don´t want their citizens to be exposed to any information that is contrary to the version of reality approved by the government. This includes anything that is critical of the Chinese government or ´what-have-you´
Australia does not place those restrictions on its web surfers. If I recall correctly, Oz does block access to (some?) pr0n sites... so does China...
But China blocks access to A LOT more... including most news websites and anything related to human rights related information as well.
Google - If they pull out - would simply end the ´Google.cn´ domain or they would stop filtering the results.
The challenge for the Chinese government would be to find a way to block that domain. This would be nearly impossible due to how easy it is to circumvent blocking text related search results (specifically when it is happening within ´.cn´ in this case)
Google can make it very easy (or very difficult) for Chinese web surfers to have access to the unfiltered results and even to view archived copies of information that would be blocked by normal / direct requests.
This is the crux of this issue for the parties involved. If China continues to harbor illegal hacking (among other things) - Google is more than happy to open the floodgates on unfiltered internet information by refusing to filter search results.
The initial approach Google presented to the Chinese government was a ´beta´ anyway. Google said from the onset that they would try it and see how it goes. the current improprieties by the Chinese government are about to end the ´beta´ Google set up for them.
Same thing as Australia, the US, the Uk and basically any country with internet.
The notion that ppl have that they have accessed to every single website in the world is a fairy tale, every goverment blocks something. yet most of them don´t go public about it. It´s simple math, Google is a US company, US doesn´t like China because they have too much power.
Funny to see Google making such a big deal about China when the blocking in Arab countries is worse.
I have yet to find the 1st chinesse person that doesn´t go back to China on holidays, or even says something related to "opression" about its country.
Haven´t tried the proxy thing. Don´t know how to set it up. Years ago I used a site called Anonymizer occasionally but am increasingly leery. Every site claims ´no spyware´, ´100% safe´, blah, blah, blah.
Kinda slow, but it gets past web filters... As explained below (copy / past from the first link)
"Tor is a toolset for a wide range of organizations and people that want to improve their safety and security on the Internet. Using Tor can help you anonymize web browsing and publishing, instant messaging, IRC, SSH, and other applications that use the TCP protocol. Tor also provides a platform on which software developers can build new applications with built-in anonymity, safety, and privacy features."
Thanks for the link. After Googling reviews for it, have decided I´ll wait til the speed/compatibility improves. Am running Win7/Firefox3.6/noscript. If I need a booby fix, I´ll just roll over and take a peek. She doesn´t mind ;-)
