Google News China site blocked
p2pnet.net News:- Reporters Without Borders has condemned China’s action in blocking access to Google’s News site, “starting a few weeks after the launch of an expurgated Chinese-language version”.
Google recently denied claims that its Chinese service was censoring news.
“In order to create the best possible news search experience for our users, we sometimes decide not to include some sites, for a variety of reasons,” company spokeswoman Debbie Frost told p2pnet at the time.
Dynamic Internet Technology (DIT) ceo Bill Xia told us that on September 15, a volunteer working with DIT’s DynaWeb noticed Google’s Chinese news returned different results depending whether the search was conducted in China or in the US.
He also said, “We were able to confirm this report through proxies in China. Search results inside China do not contain news from blocked sites such as www.epochtimes.com.au.”
Now, “China is censuring Google News to force Internet users to use the Chinese version of the site which has been purged of the most critical news reports,” Reporters Without Borders says.
“By agreeing to launch a news service that excludes publications disliked by the government, Google has let itself be used by Beijing.”
“The US company is therefore partly to blame, but it still has a chance to ally itself with those who defend press freedom.”
RWB has contacted Andrew McLaughlin, Google’s head of corporate ethics.
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See:-
condemned- Google urged to react after Chinese authorities block Google News, Reporters Without Borders, November 30, 2004
denied claims – Google on China censorship, p2pnet, October 1, 2004
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If you’re Chinese and you’re looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent website blocking outside of China.
Download it here and feel free to copy the zip and host it yourself so others can download it.
November 30th, 2004 at 10:45 pm
At overseas US military bases, internet access is censored, with many dissident sites being blocked. There’s a rumour that soon Fox News will be the only internet news site accessable.
December 1st, 2004 at 1:18 pm
That’s quite sad. Does this mean that CBS News and CNN are unavailable? That only the most glossy version of news reporting in America?
The American military deserves better.