Google’s adventures in China
p2p news / p2pnet: Google founder admits China compromise – Aljazeera.net, Qatar: A co-founder of Google has admitted the internet company compromised its principles by agreeing to censor its Chinese site. Sergey …
The trials of reporting from China – Guardian Unlimited, UK: The international news editors are interested this morning in a story about Google reconsidering its controversial decision to allow China to censor its links …
Another brick in the Great Firewall – Bangkok Post, Thailand: Beijing (dpa) – China has for weeks blocked access to the Google.com internet search engine in most provinces and use of US-designed software programmes that …
And, “Chinese authorities have blocked most domestic users from the main Google.com search engine, a media watchdog said,” says the BBC in China ‘blocks’ main Google site.
It goes on, “Internet users in major Chinese cities faced difficulties accessing Google’s international site in the past week, Reporters Without Borders said.
“But Google.cn, the controversial Chinese language version launched in January, has not been affected. The site blocks politically sensitive material to comply with government censorship rules.”
The above headlines and story intros came from Google’s main US news page at 7:22 am Pacific, and they all relate to the non-news that ‘Do No Evil’ Google willingly plays China’s online censor game, protesting all the while that in so doing, it’s only following unavoidable local laws, at the same time helping to keep the Net open.
As p2pnet first revealed in 2004, Google decried allegations that its Chinese service was censoring news. But, Dynamic Internet Technology ceo Bill Xia said Google was helping the Chinese authorities to maintain an online ‘matrix’ to prevent people from accessing unfiltered news.
Google spokeswoman Debbie Frost told us, “to create the best possible news search experience for our users, we sometimes decide not to include some sites, for a variety of reasons” and the company said information censored would be less than 2% of Chinese news sources and, “On balance we believe that having a service with links that work and omits a fractional number is better than having a service that is not available at all.”
And this February, Xia said Google is using blacklists to censor some search results in China.
‘Compromised its principles’
Now, “co-founder of Google has admitted the internet company compromised its principles by agreeing to censor its Chinese site,” says Aljazeera.com. “Sergey Brin said Google agreed to the censorship demands only after Chinese authorities blocked its service.
“Brin described China`s demands as a ’set of rules that we weren’t comfortable with’ but added that Google`s competitors complied with the same demands without international criticism.”
The story quotes Brin as saying, “We felt that perhaps we could compromise our principles but provide ultimately more information for the Chinese and be a more effective service and perhaps make more of a difference.”
‘Google censorship’
“According to Associated Press, Google`s co-founder Sergey Brin has admitted that the search engine compromised its principles by kowtowing to the censorship,” blogs The Guardian’s Ed Pilkington, continuing:
“We`ll be covering that story in tomorrow`s paper from the American end. But behind such a headline lies a story of daily frustration for our correspondent in China, Jonathan Watts. I talked to him this morning about how the Google censorship affects his work. He talked to me on a crackly mobile phone from inner Mongolia, inside China. My first mention of the word Google was followed instantly by the phone going dead. I called him back, and we tried again. When I said ‘censorship’ we were cut off again. On the third try we were similarly disrupted after the uttering of ‘Tiananmen’.
“Paranoia was setting in. Jon, an impressively unflappable correspondent, reassured me that it was the mountains rather than the monitors that were to blame for our stuttering conversation. But he went on to describe the daily tribulations that the Google policy causes him.
“Most of the time, as an international correspondent, he can log on to Google.com, the global version that is withheld from most Chinese users. However, even then the authorities have found a way of blocking access to sensitive stories. So if he tries to link through Google.com to a story with keywords such as Tiananmen, Falun Gong, Dalai Lama, Taiwan, or independence in it, he will find access denied. Similar frustrations exist when you try to link through Google to stories on the Amnesty site or to BBC news, which are blocked in China.
“After he tries to link to such sites, there`s another disturbing pattern – his access to Google.com itself is disrupted for a while. ‘It`s like finding yourself in a parallel legal system, with its own set of punishments. If you step out of line, you are penalised,’ Jon says.”
‘Neutralised’ software
The Bangkok Post says, “since May 24 blockade has also ‘neutralised’ software such as Dynapass, Ultrasurf, Freegate [see below] and Garden Networks used by about 100,000 of China’s 100 million internet users to bypass government firewalls that blocks news and other information, according to the group.
“US-based exile Bill Xia, designer of Dynapass, said he was convinced authorities were deploying considerable hardware and software resources to achieve the blockade.
“Though his company has already released a new version of Dynapas the results were still extremely limited.”
Stay tuned.
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Also See:
first revealed – Google helps ‘China Matrix’, September 20, 2006
best possible – Google China censorship: more, October 2, 2006
censor – Google China’s internet blacklists, February 6, 2004
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June 8th, 2006 at 6:35 pm
China makes me sick.
June 9th, 2006 at 12:40 am
Me too, why wouldn’t they kill your call? watch yourself ppl!
June 24th, 2006 at 12:51 am
I am a Chinese myself. I do not see the need for exiles and other people in the Western world to keep meddling in China’s policies. I have relatives in China who I call very often. We always talk about politics and the government doesn’t care. Only the nosy reporters who should stop trying to cause another civil war care. The people of China will not listen to the West in its demand that the Chinese must rise against the government. The West should look in the mirror and see who has a history of repression. Why should we listen to you when your nations are in decline and searching for new ways to colonize others? The people of China are not interested in politics, they are interested in new ways to become successful and have a good life. Why would the Chinese government try to stop that. Pornographic websites are banned in China, in the West, you listen to the crap Howard Stern has to say.
June 26th, 2006 at 2:03 am
Google is just like all of the other greedy companys profit befor honor or they will sell out personal information on you and hide it like the republicans under national security