Google Agrees to Censor Results in China

neutralino writes "The Associated Press is reporting that Google has agreed to censor results in China. According to the article, 'Google officials characterized the censorship concessions in China as an excruciating decision for a company that adopted "don't be evil" as a motto. But management believes it's a worthwhile sacrifice.'"

Re:Don't^H^H^H^H^H

[jonathanhowell]

what the heck is with the ^H^H^H^H^H^ thing?

Assuming your question is sincere:
^H is a representation of Control-H, which is the ASCII character for backspace. Try it sometime: instead of hitting your backspace key to delete a character, hold down the Ctrl key and press H. It _should_ work (assuming that it hasn't been mapped to another function).

Jonathan

Re:Bold Statement

[Killall -9 Bash]

Just searched google.cn for "Tianmen Square".
first result: Was There A Massacre In Tiananmen Square 1989? [sinomania.com]
censorship indeed.

You are missing one key thing.

[neoshroom]

As the article goes on to state, when an item is censored Google will tell you it has censored the searched item to comply with local laws. This sort of censorship where you know something is being kept from you is much less scary than the type where you simply don't know what is being kept from you.

To use your own analogy this would be like Poland Spring putting lead in their water, and then putting a bit notice on every bottle that said "To comply with Chinese law we have put lead in this water."

If you know the water is posion you can choose to drink elsewhere if you wish.

Googling 'Tianmen Square' at www.google.cn

[Anonymous Coward]

The first hit gets you this web page [sinomania.com] with quotes like:

Other than the official Chinese information, no reliable evidence of deaths has ever been produced by anyone on either side of the issue. As Jay Mathews, former Beijing bureau chief for the Washington Post has said, there is no evidence anyone died in Tiananmen Square. Yet no journalist or politician outside China has ever attempted to correct the record. Instead the myth that thousands of unarmed people were deliberately mowed down by their own government is spread as part of an unacknowledged campaign of misinformation led by sinophobic press and politicians.

Whereas a google.com search yields this [wikipedia.org]
wikipedia article as its first hit with quotes like this:

Estimates of civilian deaths vary greatly: the Central Intelligence Agency estimates that 400-800 died, while the Chinese Red Cross put the figure at 2,600. Student protestors claim that over 7,000 were killed.

Tiananmen+Square

[Saeed al-Sahaf]

Check this out:

http://www.google.cn/search?hl=zh-CN&q=tiananmen+S quare++&btnG=%E6%90%9C%E7%B4%A2&meta= [google.cn]

Re:Bold Statement

[Rickler]

What gave you the idea students were crushed by tanks? The Tank Man [wikipedia.org] was never crushed; he stood in front of the tanks for half an hour then was pulled away. Noone was crushed by a tank that day that anyone knows of. kthx read up on history then post yes?

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

The Notice Is There

[Pakup]

Perhaps you can't read the notice, but is there, in Chinese, at the bottom of the search results on Google.com.cn:

"Ju dangdi falü fagui he zhengce, bufen sousuo jieguo weiyu xianshi."
"According to local laws, regulations and policies, part of the search results is not being shown."

Re:Not as evil as the summery leads you to believe

[Anonymous Coward]

What they are doing in China is not illegal or even unethical; they are just complying with the local laws.

In 1940s Germany, it was illegal to shelter Jews. According to the local law, those co-operating with Jews were to be shot. And according to your logic, this was quite acceptable, as the executioners were just complying with the local law, while the Jew-helping dissidents were not.

Re:Bold Statement

[Leto-II]

I think you're getting confused between Fa Long Gong and Tai Chi(Ji). Fa Long Gong is the illegal "cult" and Tai Chi is a martial art that is practiced by Chinese all over the country. Practicing Fa Long Gong will certainly get you noticed quickly but practicing Tai Chi is perfectly normal anywhere in China, including in Tian An Men square.

Re:Bold Statement

[AmPz]

Just don't come complaining when you realize that you go other places in the world, even other Europeon countries, and don't enjoy the same freedoms.

Exactly which freedoms do you refer to?

I know of no freedoms/rights in the United states which we do not have in Sweden. I do however know of several rights we have in Sweden which are lacking in the United states.
A few examples:
We have something called human rights. Perhaps you have heard of it? One example of this is that in Sweden the government cannot put a person in jail without trial. Torture as a interrogation method is also forbidden.
We also abandoned the death sentence a long time ago. In fact, the death sentence does not exist in any EU country. It is one of the conditions for EU membership.
In Sweden we have a right called "the right of public access". Basically this means everyone has the right to be out in the countryside. The only condition is that you act responsible and do not disturb or destroy the nature.

Today "American freedom" is little more than a shadow from the past.

Cool Tools for Tyrants

[Mofaluna]

The february issue of legal affairs happens to have an interesting feature on this topic: "The latest American technology helps the Chinese government and other repressive regimes clamp down." [legalaffairs.org] Ofcourse there's nothing new under the sun here, since during the second world war when Hitler had a problem, IBM did it's very best to provide the solution (IBM and the Holocaust [gnn.tv]). Only differnce is, that back then, it was illegal to do so...

Bl..Bl...Blogs....banned in China

[hubidat]

Something that has not been discussed in the media is that, as of about two months ago, access to any website with the evil word "blog" in it's URL is blocked in China. Blogs are dangerous because they contain the banned substance --opinions.

Tibetan Demonstration at Google campus today

[crobuzon]

Tibetans Outraged by Google's "Evil" Plan for Censorship in China "Don't Be Evil" Protest Planned for Google Headquarters Today San Francisco - Students for a Free Tibet is outraged at Google's decision to join hands with the Chinese Government in its censorship efforts. Google has launched a web search engine custom-built to the Chinese authorities' specifications that blocks access to information about Tibet, human rights, and other topics sensitive to Beijing. "Students and young people worldwide are appalled by Google's decision to become active partners in China's censorship apparatus," said Lhadon Tethong, Executive Director of Students for a Free Tibet. "Google's participation in the Chinese government's program of repression and information control renders the company motto "Don't be evil" a terrible joke." Google rivals Yahoo! and Microsoft have already shown a willingness to cooperate with Chinese authorities. Last year, Yahoo! provided information that helped jail a Chinese dissident for ten years and last month, Microsoft shut down a Chinese political blogger's site for "not complying with local law." "Political and corporate leaders constantly tell us that foreign business will contribute to a more open and democratic China," added Ms. Tethong. "This is yet another sign that China is in fact forcing foreign businesses to be more closed and anti-democratic." Tibetans and their supporters will hold a demonstration at 5:00 pm today at Google Headquarters at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway in Mountain View, CA. Students for a Free Tibet http://www.studentsforafreetibet.org/ [studentsfo...etibet.org] Contacts: Lhadon Tethong [phone] [e-mail] Thupten Tsering [phone] [e-mail]