|
|
楼主 |
发表于 2010-1-13 23:26
|
显示全部楼层
 sceptical101 13 Jan 2010, 8:55AM
Well done to Google...I've always tended to avoid using Google as much as possible because I didn't trust them because of china...The question was always How much of what google shows is censored?
 PhilipD 13 Jan 2010, 8:59AM
The problem is (and I suspect Google know this), as someone commented on a previous thread on China, censorship of the Internet has two aims:
1. Restricting information to the Chinese people.
2. Creating space for Chinese entrepreneurs to create and develop its own Googles, Facebooks, YouTubes, etc.
So for Google to cut back, it means it may lose a major competitive advantage to a future competitor (one which won't hesitate to co-operate with the Party leaders).
I don't envy their decision - this is just one more example of how Chinese repression isn't just reducing the choice for Chinese people (most of whom, to be honest, are both aware of what is happening and don't really care), but is reducing our options. The Chinese communist party is slowly extending its restrictive policies over the world without having to fire a shot.
 00rush 13 Jan 2010, 9:09AM
MacCosham:
Google's act is actually irrelevant.
Commerically, perhaps. Google's revenues from China are probably small enough for this to not make a significant dent to it's results. However, as a point of principle, its very relevant. It shows that a major Western corporation standing up to the Chinese government, perhaps putting principle before profit (eventually!!).
- aprilpulsar
13 Jan 2010, 9:12AM
@edstar
Beijing will block it and that will be the end of it. They don't care about google - why would they? China is 1/4 of world's population and increasingly rich and influential. The States would get by fine without guardian.co.uk (for example) why would China care about google - just another foreign website in their view
Beijing will block it, but that won't be the end of it - this saga that is. Google is setting an example that will be followed and it may help to reverse this trend towards doing things China's way that has taken hold. There is an important corporate and diplomatic lesson here.
China is increasingly rich and influential but it is not as influential as it could be if it continues along this path. Soft power is what China desperately craves, yet it puts in place all these obstacles to what it craves. Implicit within soft power is an ability to mould international public opinion 'softly'. This particular chapter in China's censorship annals will merely reinforce notions that China is terrified of certain information and that it cannot handle criticism; it uses hard power to mould public opinion. China's terror of information identifies the guilty wrongdoings of the state. Hence, less soft power.
The chalice of effective soft power will always be beyond Beijing's graps if it continues in this fashion, for no country aspires to be a land of censored information, not in this day and age. Nor does any country aspire to launch cyber campaigns against their own dissidents: none except tyrannies of course.
Furthermore, The Guardian may not be read much in the US (but it is read there) but Google is not a newspaper, it is a highly influential search engine with a vast global presence. News sites such as the BBC news in Chinese are blocked in China anyway, but it was not the decision of the BBC to pull-out, it was blocked anyway. Google is making a principled stand here and good for them. It shoves China's draconian censorship and anti-dissident hacking operations into the spotlight for all to see once more and that must be applauded.
Recommend? (13) Report abuse - Clip |
- Link
- Nanome
13 Jan 2010, 9:17AM
better late than never I suppose!
Of course Yahoo! and Microsoft will be delighted to lose the market leader in China. Still, the Microsoft motto ´we will spread FUD´ is more appropriate to the Chinese market than ´do no evil´.
- jzhang
13 Jan 2010, 9:18AM
I miss danwei.org so much~
Quite curious what reaction the CCP will take. Shutting down Google.cn ,maybe together with Google.com, quietly? Or manipulate nationalism to lunch a compain to condamn the search giant?
Whatever it'll be, it's quite interesting to watch the show indside the GFW
 dubdubdub 13 Jan 2010, 9:22AM
@waspbox.
Ok, you're Mr. Cynical.
Good ideas rarely come from any marketing department anywhere (Universal Marketing Motto: Let's look busy spending other people's money)
 Triffid100 13 Jan 2010, 9:24AM
It was a dreadful decision by google to censor itself.
It's just seeing the result of this - Google gave legitimacy to the Chinese regime. The "benefits of providing localised services to Chinese internet users" aren't worth the pixels they are writing on if you've become a propaganda outlet.
It's taken almost 15 years but seems the company that does no evil has learnt you can't appease people who remove human rights.
 anihc 13 Jan 2010, 9:28AM
@MacCosham
The States would get by fine without guardian.co.uk (for example) why would China care about google - just another foreign website in their view
Every country depends on intellectual freedom to develop and flourish. Getting by on semi-slave labour at rock-bottom prices will only get you so far. China needs freedom to succeed in the long term.
- taiwantico
13 Jan 2010, 9:34AM
Add me to the cynical count. Google can't seem to catch up to Baidu and they want to pull out without admitting defeat. This is a business decision with a PR spin. By playing the "do no evil" card today, they get to do that AND receive praise for being righteous. My question is, would they have done this if they were leading the market?
 SELAVY 13 Jan 2010, 9:37AM
CSClark
***And why on earth isn't the real message to take from this not about how sweet Google is to rethink their complicity in censorship but: Dissidents! Don't store your thoughts, hopes and dreams in the cloud! No, not even if Google says it will protect you! ***
Yep.
They have shown themselves to be a company who have always put profit before principle.
This smells like a PR exercise,given the level of disdain in which they were held. But one could be generous and say "better late than never".
- TVwriter
13 Jan 2010, 9:50AM
@MacCosham
...dissenting views in the West are drowned out in a sea of corporate-produced content...The truth? You mean the truth about Tienanmen Square, aka CIA coup "Operation Yellow Bird"?
Stand well back and hold your noses against the stink. Here come the apologists. Corporate-produced content has obviously not prevented you from discovering the truth about Tiananmen Square. Is that because you're cleverer than the rest of us dupes, or because you got lucky? Surprised you had time to uncover the conspiracy, what with all those other plots vying for your attention, like 9/11, the so-called Moon landings, Prince Philip assassinating Diana, Elvis still being alive...
 WatsonsWater 13 Jan 2010, 9:52AM
causing fans and foes of Google to question the "Don't do evil" company motto
Any company which says they don't do something, actually do it! Otherwise why say it? They are in the business of making money, just like those Opium traders working for the British East India Company back in the 19thC. That is sort of like the British Government saying "We don't do drugs", and in regards to America, Australia and New Zealand "We don't do genocide".
Google is a monopoly, probably backed by big business from the start, with a neat little cover story that it was two geeks that came up with the whole thing. They were happy to take Chinese money from 2006 to 2010, must have made quite a lot. This little stunt proves nothing, they are just blowing hot air, they know their future growth is fully dependent on the Chinese market and they will do whatever is asked of them, while appearing to be tough on the surface (years of listening to Labour MP's speak has made me this cynical!).
And those who think the UK/US is censorship free should ask themselves why the UK is the libel capital of the world. Why criticism of Islam is not allowed anywhere, where the voice of the little man is suppressed and ignored, where the government can snoop into your life at the drop of a hat and brand you a terrorist.
The Chinese are not saints, but they are not the only ones who keep the truth away from their people. Ask your MP about UCC contact law and see what they say!
- WatsonsWater
13 Jan 2010, 9:55AM
anihc
Every country depends on intellectual freedom to develop and flourish.
Exactly, so when does the UK plan to start? (to paraphrase your hero).
Getting by on semi-slave labour at rock-bottom prices will only get you so far.
Yep, so when will the UK stop stealing the workforce of 3rd world countries and train its own people? 6 million on benefits doing nothing, because the government has left them on the shelf!
- TVwriter
13 Jan 2010, 10:26AM
@WatsonsWater
...the little man is suppressed and ignored...
Suppressed, no. Ignored, yes, when they squeak nonsense like suggestiing Google was :
...backed by big business from the start, with a neat little cover story that it was two geeks that came up with the whole thing.
As far as UCC contract law is concerned, there's a long discussion about it on the David Icke site. You'd feel at home there.
|
|
狗仔卡
发表于 2010-1-13 23:19
提升卡
变色卡
抢沙发
千斤顶
显身卡
发表于 2010-1-13 23:32
