Google Loses Round 2

Google has agreed to cooperate with the Chinese government to censor information about human rights, Tibet and other topics sensitive to Beijing in return for having its service in the rapidly growing internet market in China.   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.

Google says:

"We firmly believe, with our culture of innovation, Google can make meaningful and positive contributions to the already impressive pace of development in China."

Julien Pain, head of Reporters the Without Borders says:

"This is a real shame. 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."

So let’s see…..Google won’t cooperate with the US government to protect children from porn on the internet, but will cooperate with Communist China in censoring information to the Chinese people for profit. 

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Update on Friday, January 27, 2006 at 11:03PM by Amy Proctor

Here are some funny Chinese Google logos from Michelle Malkin’s site, which she got from various other sites.

Comments

[Aimz]

The whole thing just seems so illogical - who in their right mind would comply with a communist country and then at the same time say that they hope to contribute to the development in China? It doesn't make sense...

[Ruth]

Outstanding point, Amy. What a contrast; cooperating with communists but not your own government. It pretty much shows Google's priorities.

[jez]

This is less than perfect... But we know that China is not afraid to block access to google altogether (it has done so in the past). You have to ask yourself, from the pointof view of a Chinese citizen, is restricted google better than no google at all.

I haven't been able to find out the particulars of the filtering, although it is clearly likely to be significant and political in nature.

I think these two stories may be linked. Google stores IP addresses with search terms, and IP addresses (As you know Amy) can, with a fair degree of accuracy (80ish %), be linked to a geographical location. If the US government can get hold of that data, it can get a valuable insight into the various Chinese pro / anti American subcultures. The Chinese are understandably resistant to this...

Also, please note that all other search engines operating in China are similarly restricted. Google's the last to concede and, in my opinion, put up something of an heroic struggle. Just my opinion. They're certainly not pro-China, that's ridiculous; I think this has to do with wanting to provide the best service (and yes, thereby collect advertising revenue) for the Chinese internet users.

It is to America's credit that companies like google are at liberty to challenge requests for data in an open way, without fear of being penalised for defending themselves. This isn't the end of the story, if the DOJ can justify its request, google will have to comply.

[Timmer ~ Righting America]

AMY -

A VERY good point indeed.

The only excuse they have is business, pure and simple. The bottom line here is that in the US they hurt their reputation for privacy (hurts the bottom line) - and in China it would REALLY hurt if they were blocked altogether.

Ah yes - the mighty greenback!

[Amy Proctor]

Jez, not pro-China? Not pro-porn? I agree. However, what does it actually when you support those things in action? That's what makes these situations problematic. You can say something with words but do another with actions and the moral dimension gets lost in the sauce.

I also am changing cell phone companies because I found that mine currently gives $$ to Planned Parenthood. Not everyone cares or is bothered by the moral aspect of such things, but on the other hand many are.

[Erica B]

Amy, I clicked on your link to Reporters Without Borders and it seems that they are hostile to the United States government. They ranked the United States 108th out of 167 countries on their "press freedom index" for "attacks on press freedom in US-occupied Iraq." Don't they realize that we are fighting a war? Anyway, we put freedom of the press number one in our Bill of Rights and they rank us 108th. They are probably run by whiny libs.

[jez]

Just to clarify some of what I think Erica is saying, "reporters without borders" is not Google -- in fact, they're criticising google quite vigorously in the linked article.
I don't know how often they update their press freedom index (http://www.rsf.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=554) but when I looked at it, the USA was 44th. (The US-occupied Iraq is listed separately at 137th).
I only read the blurb on the page, but it looks like a fairly dispationated objective measure, probably in large part calculated by a formula (I expect several penalty points for each journalist killed, hence Iraq's poor showing).

[Amy Proctor]

Erica, I know, Reporters without Borders is no better than Amnesty International. But they made a good point about Google!