The Google Double Standard - Stands up to US govt, caves to ChiComs

Did everyone suddenly stop using Yahoo and MSN last week, after if was made public that they handed that information over?

 

What a one dimentional argument. No wonder TJ has a field day with you. Skip the stock BS, not including the fact that they closed last night, just as high as ever.

Not releasing the info, regardless of the stock drop, is a win win situation (maybe not in the immediate-blindsighted term) Short term and the long term, they are clearly going to gain the confidence of the consumers. Personally, im satisfied with either of the decisions. I hardly think their decision to release the info would have sent their stocks through the roof.

I really find it amazing that many people have the attitude of "we have to protect our freedom but to hell with the rest of the world".

 

doesn't this admin also have a double standard in terms of foreign policy?

 

You really believe this? You really think 99% of the google-using population even knows about Google's decision, one way or another? You think anyone actually has changed whether they use Yahoo or MSN vs. Google because of what transpired last week?

If you think this has any lasting financial benefits (or drawbacks) for their business, you don't understand their business model very well.

You're very good at the TJ-style of arguing - I see why you look up to him. "greed. very disappointing". All fluff, no substance. Come back when you have a rationale behind your argument.

 

Interesting. Are you consistent with this belief? How do you feel about this administration’s support of non-democratic regimes like in Saudi Arabia, for example?

 

At least Google is going to notify the users when things have been censored. That's a start. It's better than not realizing that the material you are reading has been censored.
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/01/24/D8FBCF686.html


Still it's sad. A search on Tiananmen Square
http://www.google.cn/search?hl=zh-CN&q=tiananmen+Square++&btnG=%E6%90%9C%E7%B4%A2&meta=

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Tiananmen+Square+&btnG=Google+Search

Notice how the china results have no mention of the massacre?

 

odd that you can find it on baidu.com but not on goog.


add massacre to what you searched for on the .cn and the first link is to baidu.

 

I don't know which one of the two is more evil.

If you were googling a "censored" or "sensitive" item in China, you would see the results that're different from the ones displayed otherwise in a "free" country, such as the good'ol USA. While the filtered out results invariably have the ChiCom flavor, you would be informed by a notice from Google displayed at the bottom of the page that reads:

"Some Search Results were not displayed according to local laws and policies."

Boom! You know you are running into a ChiCom sensorship on the search engine, and you either throw your hands up, curse, and quit, or, you find a workaround to bypass it if you are stubborn and smart enough.

Well it's another scenario in the greatest democray and freeest nation on earth here. After you type in *something*, and hit the "Google Search" button, you are faced with pape after page of search results. You click on some URLs, unimpeded.

Three months later.

You get home after a tired day of work. You see your answering machine is flashing and you press the message retrieve button. You hear an unfamilar voice: "Hello Mr. Curiosity, this is Special Agent Operation Hawkeye from FBI. I would like to have an interview with you at some point of your convenience. Here's my phone number ..."

FBI? You are like wtf?? But since you are Mr. Curiosity, you go ahead and make an appointment with Mr. Hawkeye anyhow.

A week later in an office on the ninth floor of the Fedeal Building at downtown, you are greeted by two plain clothed middle-aged men. Says one, "Good afternoon, I am Mr. Operation Hawkeye, and this is my partner, Special Agent Medieval Sharpear. Nice to see you, Mr. Curiosity. Have a seat.

Our records have shown that you ..."

I still remember this most touted motto during the Cold War that differentiated United States from Soviet Union, whereas a "repressive regime" may claim it offers its citizens freedom of speech of some kind, a true democracy guarantees the freedom after speech.

So, to charaterize the googling situation in today's China and USA: In one, you encounter the gate of a restricted area every once in a while, some guarded, some locked, and you weigh risks, pondering what to do next. In the other, you are at full liberty to roam to wherever you want, unhindered. The catch is you may get screwed, oops, I mean scrutinized, later.

 

My favorite was trying to read my (or any) blogspot.com material while in China, or as most mainland Chinese know it; "404 File Not Found"

 

Looks like China is making Google censor quite a bit more than we originally thought...and searchers aren't always notified that the results are censored, either... What is the government of China worried about???

http://news.com.com/No+booze+or+jokes+for+Googlers+in+China/2100-1030_3-6031727.html

No booze or jokes for Googlers in China

Google's new China search engine not only censors many Web sites that question the Chinese government, but it goes further than similar services from Microsoft and Yahoo by targeting teen pregnancy, homosexuality, dating, beer and jokes.

In addition, CNET News.com has found that contrary to Google co-founder Sergey Brin's promise to inform users when their search results are censored, the company frequently filters out sites without revealing it.

Some of the blackballing appeared to be a mistake. The University of Pennsylvania's entire engineering school server--which hosted one Falun Gong site--was blocked from Google's Google.cn China site. So was an Essex County Web site, which sports the word "sex"--as in "Essex"--in its domain name. Google.cn also doesn't display search.msn.com to someone who's hunting for the rival Microsoft service.

And the results can be haphazard. A search in English on "Tiananmen Square" turned up some sites but not others. Tsquare.tv, a site devoted to the protest and subsequent massacre, was filtered out, but Wikipedia's write-up appeared. And an image search revealed the iconic photo of a student blocking a column of tanks before the 1989 massacre. Search results also appear to vary depending on whether they're done in English or in Chinese characters.

In a series of conversations starting Wednesday, Google representatives responded to CNET News.com's queries by saying that some Web site blockages are human errors that should be expected when any new service is introduced, and others represent a concerted attempt to comply with Chinese censorship laws. By Thursday, a handful of blackballed sites, such as the engineering school and Budweiser.com, had been cleared to appear on Google.cn, though Guinness.com had not.

When launching its China-based search site this week, Google defended its decision to comply with the dictates of China's ruling Communist Party by saying the new service expands access to information for Chinese users. But its choice has been controversial, not least because Google's corporate motto is "Don't be evil."

Google's China launch comes as scrutiny of search engine providers' commitment to civil liberties is increasing and criticism of their choice to comply with repressive regimes is growing. Congress is planning hearings in the next few weeks, and on Wednesday, Rep. Chris Smith blasted Google for "collaborating with (democracy activists') persecutors."

Because access from China to the U.S. Google.com site is limited for financial and political reasons, the vast majority of Chinese are forced to turn to domestic search engines instead. Google's Brin has estimated that Google.com is available to only half of the country's users. Other reports say that when search terms such as "Tiananmen Square" are typed in on Google.com, the site immediately becomes unreachable for a few hours.

Bill Albert, a spokesman for the Washington, D.C.-based National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, said it was "discouraging" to find that his group has been banned from Google.cn, especially since it hasn't been blackballed by Yahoo's China site or by Microsoft's Chinese version of MSN. "While our focus is on U.S. rates of teen pregnancy and birth we do have a lot of people coming from foreign countries, and we certainly would like to keep that line of communication open," Albert said.

Related story
Google censors China Web searches
Search giant agrees to censorship laws, reasoning that people getting limited access to content is better than none.A search for "teen pregnancy" through Google's U.S. Web site lists the group's home page as the first result. But in an identical search through Google.cn, the campaign's Web site is not listed. Google does not inform users that it was deleted.

Google said in a statement Wednesday that its filters are "intended to block the minimum required to comply with (Chinese) laws and regulations."

In a second statement to CNET News.com, the company added: "As with most brand-new services, our launch is immediately followed by a process of identifying and correcting bugs or other technical issues. Google.cn is no exception, and we will continue to refine our processes to ensure that we are filtering the minimum necessary, and that notices are properly displayed in all instances results have been filtered." (Google refuses to make its list of off-limits Web sites public.)

The buggy Chinese filtering stands out as a rare black eye for a company that prides itself on superior search technology, has a $126 billion market capitalization and boasts on its payroll one of the world's highest concentrations of computer science doctoral degrees.

 

It was hypocritical then as it is now. It's why MLK and other black civil rights leaders were wiretapped by the FBI and NSA. The Soviet propaganda machine capitalized on the demonstrations to their people as a point that we weren't free.

Some radical historians even accuse the US Government of relenting because of the Cold War instead of domestic or moral pressure.

Perhaps the stakes are different now. Maybe its because they aren't as high that we stand to lose much more.

 

Well I would think that you could probably replace Iraq with China in about 99.99 percent of all Bush pre war Chicken hawking and have the same speech about China or Iraq.

And if China is such a terrible place Texxy, which commits the same human rights atrocities that Iraq did, is the Bush admininstation so in Bed with them? Hell make that Saudi Arabia too.

 

It's a google bug, dude. Fixed now.

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-6032118.html