SAN FRANCISCO — Online search engine leader Google Inc. has agreed to censor its results in China, adhering to the country's free-speech restrictions in return for better access in the Internet's fastest growing market.
The Mountain View, Calif.-based company planned to roll out a new version of its search engine bearing China's Web suffix ".cn," on Wednesday....
Google's decision rankled Reporters Without Borders, a media watchdog group that has sharply criticized Internet companies including Yahoo and Microsoft Corp.'s MSN.com for submitting to China's censorship regime.
"This is a real shame," said Julien Pain, head of Reporters with Borders' Internet desk. "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."
Once again, we see how, for the sake of business, Google will bend over and take anything. Meanwhile, the US Govt is criticized for wanting to examine searches that are related to child pornography, while Google is praised for their brave stand against the attempted "oppression" and "dangerous infringement on privacy." But Google will happily restrict the access of Chinese people to whatever the Chinese government would prefer they not see, and they are happy to do the same thing for the governments of France and Germany.
When Google censors results in China, it intends to post notifications alerting users that some content has been removed — to comply with local laws. The company provides similar alerts in Germany and France when, to comply with national laws, it censors results to remove references to Nazi paraphernalia.
And yet I do not hear Belefonte and those like him raising a peep about this actual repression. Real censorship is of no great importance to him. Instead he prefers to believe in imaginary things, for instance that it is Americans that are repressed and facing the loss of all their freedoms. I wonder if Belefonte also believes in unicorns? Perhaps he'd be interested in buying a bridge in Brooklyn?...
1 comment:
I would still think the Chinese people would benefit from a censored Google than not having any access to Google at all. So isn't there some good in that?
Also Google does indicate on its results if something has been censored out, (and its not like the Chinese people don't know about censorship).
Changes in places like China have to come in increments, who knows even a censored Google can provide enough information for the Chinese people to break their shackles.
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