Google volunteers to censor searches in China -- 'cause it smells MONEY!

[peacefuljeffrey 0]

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Go visit The United Arab Emirates. Open up any "questionable" site including MySpace.com and the warning shown in the photo attached appears. Lets hear what you have to say about the Arab government. Go to other countries as well. Same thing.

I've said enough about arab culture on this board that I think it's probably pretty clear how I feel.

If you were trying to remind me that arab culture / islamic religion are anathema to human expression and liberty, well, nice job. I am well-reminded.

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-Jeffrey
"With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

[peacefuljeffrey 0]

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Isn't it a bit hypocritical to chastise Google when America purchases huge amounts of goods from China. So Google should say f-it to a huge market but your average American Joe is OK with 'made in China' just because its cheaper.

Okay, good points in your post.

I would say that this all points to the relative powerlessness of the "little guy consumer" to do much if anything about it. We don't control where corporations have their goods made. They present the consumer goods to us, and hey, if China is where they're made, China is where they're made. If you don't like it, it's really hard to find the same products made in the U.S. or some non-atrocity-engaging country.

It really strikes me as a "what can ya do?" situation.

But there is a difference I see between buying goods made in the nasty country, and actually agreeing to DO one of the things that we think is nasty about that country (censor reading material).

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-Jeffrey
"With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

[dorbie 0]

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Fuckin' scumbags.
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We all buy goods made in China, I tried to stop, it was impossible, not kidding, there are whole categories of ordinary stuff now that are imported exclusively from China, made by people living under a restrictive political system.

Fact is that all of Google's competitors including Microsoft have been doing business in China, censoring at the behest of their government while Google refused. So their refusal was having no impact. Finally they relented so they could compete in China instead of being excluded.

There is no news story here.

If a government and people want to affect change in China then they should put their own house in order or at least get the facts before spouting bullshit about a subject they learned about over their wheatos this morning and know little about.

If a company like Google holds out the longest, while the likes of Microsoft has been working diligently to build China's government firewalls (that happen to restrict ALL access to google's uncensored results from inside China), then they're not the main culprits when they finally cave after seeing their competition thrive at their expense while congress wallows in complacency as Wall Mart exports unimaginable billions in industry to the place.

Internet search engines are not there to fix your fucking problems, not your borders, not your political system and not your penchant porn. If they're forced legally by local jurisdictions to impose limits then they comply or get shut down there. Google is not the problem, and if you'd been paying attention this would not exactly be a revalation.

[dorbie 0]

P.S. if you'd wanted GOOG et.al. to hold out then calling the exclusions imposed anti-competitive illegal trade restrictions and imposing tarrifs and restrictions on China's exports would have been the way to go.

Maybe you could sail a few gunboats up the Yangtze and force them to buy your unfiltered searches.

Ain't gonna happen.

The strategy seems to be to pump China with trillions of dollars in the hope that infusing a communist dictatorship with cash converts them to capitalism before they use the cash to arm themselves and their manufacturing industry to the point of invincibility, while praying they'll be nice enough not to invade free Taiwan. Fingers crossed eh!