Category: News and Views
Google censors its site for China
Google headquarters in Mountain View, California
The internet search engine Google is to offer people in China a special version of its site by removing links to things that offend the Chinese government.
China is very sensitive about the information its people have access to and sometimes sends people to jail if they don't agree with the government.
China could previously access Google from other countries but blocks by the government made it a very slow service.
Google.cn was created to avoid removing the service from China all together.
Click here to find out more about China
Keywords that users of Google.cn won't be able to access include "Taiwan independence", "human rights" and even the BBC News site has been blocked.
These sites all contain information outside limits previously set by the Chinese government. It especially doesn't want its people to read about news stories
where the police has been involved in using violence.
The Chinese version of Google also won't have e-mail, chat rooms or blogging services because there are concerns the Chinese government could use these
to access personal information about people.
Disappointment
Some groups have criticised Google for giving in to the demands of the Chinese government rather than encouraging freedom of speech.
People who campaign for human rights have said they're disappointed with the decision.
But Google argues that agreeing to the government's demands is better than removing its service from China completely.
Google by doing this is bowing to the Chineese authorities. It's very interesting how they care more about censoring political material, but in the developed democracies, porn and other illegal material will appear in search results. I think this is a business decision, in fact it's quite obvious, because MSN, and Yahoo! have done similar. Internet business isn't the only thing doing this, why are companies moving jobs from europe/North America to China? They can get away with employing people more cheaply. The problem is the countries where the companies are based. If the governments of these countries really cared about international freedom, they'd demand that citizens of other countries were treated by companies the same as they'd treat citizens of the countries they're based in. This would mean that it would cost as much to employ people, and that everyones human rights would have to be respected. It would also put pressure on Chiina which would have to either cooperate or becoe more isolated. It would also put pressure on other countries to do likewise. This kind of equality, may also make the world more equal.
googles decission is totally business based. since when has the chinese government cared about freedom of speach?
Well it doesn't, but I thought Google did. I know Blogger which is owned by Google has a lot of Chinese users, I wonder to what extent they'll be censored by Google.
Disappointing maybe, but Google is a business, not a human rites group. As much as we all like the image of the quirky underdogs who've done so well, they haven't got into the position they're in now by being altruistic. And it's certainly no surprise from the chinese authorities.
the other interesting thing to note is that the sites that are sencered by google won't just say they're down or don't exist, but the people will be told that those sites are in fact being sencered. it will be interesting to see what affect this will have on the chinese people when they learn what their government doesn't want them to read.
I also agree that google, being a business have every right not to care about the rights of the country that they're selling a product to and only for the money they're making. after all, that's capitalism for you.
It is a good thing that the Chineese people will know what the government is censoring, but I think they already know. As for the capitalism arguament, well how many of those who use it to defend Google would be prepared to use it to defend America taking loads of oil from the Middle East and by doing so helping regimes to stay in power? Afterall, that's capitalism too, and human rights abroad aren't anything to do with the American government.