Chinese bloggers debate Google

Google's decision to launch a censored version of its search engine in China has drawn opprobrium from many bloggers around the world.

The BBC News website spoke to bloggers in China and Hong Kong to get their perspective.

This is what one said

The problem is not that Google is censoring its search service, it is that China doesn't have free speech.

But I'm always supportive of kicking up a fuss about American companies. Yahoo, Google and Microsoft are part of the "Great Firewall". They helped build the infrastructure to block information.

If I send an email to anyone with a Yahoo.cn account which has the words "democracy" or "civil society", it will bounce back.

These companies are the keepers of information from a billion people for profit. Google is just the latest manifestation of the bigger story.

My blog has been affected by this. On my 30th birthday I wrote about my birthday wish: a democratic China. I went on holiday to China, stayed in a state-owned hotel, and checked my blog from there.

When I returned to Hong Kong, I couldn't get onto the site. Even the host had been blocked. It became a bit of a cause celebre. Bloggers around the world turned their sites black as a gesture of solidarity.

Some bloggers may say this is not an important issue but I don't think enough attention can be paid to Chinese internet censorship. If I were based a few miles across the border, I wouldn't be able to do what I am doing now.

The internet is the way forward to break the silence in China. Every media outlet is state owned. The internet is the back door. For the people who care, it is a hopeful technology.

Gutenberg liberated information from the church, the internet it seems has liberated us from church, state, and the contolled distribution of the media in all its many guises. So what next?

Comments

[alan moore]

John Battelle makes some very valid and key points on Googles decision to kow-tow to Chinese pressure to restrict the search capability of google in China

http://battellemedia.com/archives/002275.php

Google's first big editing job? Deciding which sites to exclude because they might offend the Chinese government. There's still time to pull out, guys. I've read your rationalizations, and Uncle Bill's as well. I don't buy them. I don't buy that this is what, in your heart, you believe is right. Sure, I understand the logic. But, well....in your heart, is this what you wanted to do? No? Then why did you do it?

[alan moore]

Elinor Mills from CNET posts an excellent article on Google and China

oogle said Tuesday it will launch versions of its search and news Web sites in China that censor material deemed objectionable to authorities there, reasoning that people getting limited access to content is better than none.

The new local Google site, expected to be launched Wednesday at Google.cn, will include notes at the bottom of results pages that disclose when content has been removed, said Andrew McLaughlin, senior policy counsel for Google.

"Google.cn will comply with local Chinese laws and regulations," he said in a statement. "In deciding how best to approach the Chinese--or any--market, we must balance our commitments to satisfy the interest of users, expand access to information, and respond to local conditions."

Google will not initially offer Gmail or Blogger in China until executives feel they can strike that balance adequately, McLaughlin said.

Web surfers in China have had difficulty accessing the Google service, reporting frustratingly slow connections and time-outs, Google said. Human rights groups have accused China's government of blocking access to Web sites that do not adhere to the government's restrictions.

Reporters Without Borders, a France-based group that defends freedom of the press, blasted Google, saying the company was taking an immoral position that could not be justified.

"By offering a version without 'subversive' content, Google is making it easier for Chinese officials to filter the Internet themselves. A Web site not listed by search engines has little chance of being found by users," the group said in a statement. "The new Google version means that even if a human rights publication is not blocked by local firewalls, it has no chance of being read in China."

With a population of 1.3 billion people and more than 100 million Internet users, China's largely untapped Internet market is very attractive to technology companies. Google is opening a research and development center in China and owns a stake in Baidu.com, the most popular search engine in that country.

Google is not the only U.S. search firm targeted with complaints about censorship in China. Previously, Google censored its news site in China, removing material banned by the authorities, but it had not censored its U.S.-based search engine accessible in China and was the last of the major search engines not to have done so, according to Reporters Without Borders.

In other news:
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Google fixes China search bugs
Meanwhile, earlier this month Microsoft admitted removing the blog of an outspoken Chinese journalist from its MSN Spaces site, citing its policy of adhering to local laws. Last June, Microsoft acknowledged censoring words like "freedom" and "democracy" from its Chinese MSN portal site.

And in September, Reporters Without Borders accused Yahoo of providing information that helped Chinese officials convict a journalist charged with leaking state secrets. Shi Tao was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Angered by such reports, some politicians have threatened to pass laws restricting U.S. companies from cooperating with the Chinese government on censorship. Hearings are planned for the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Human Rights and in the Congressional Human Rights Caucus.

Ironically, Google was praised by privacy advocates and consumers last week for fighting the U.S. government's request to hand over random Web search data . Yahoo, Microsoft's MSN and America Online had complied with the request.

[Henry Peise]

Don't you attract by the elegant white iphone 4? But its likely to release untile next summer! What's worse, it is said it may not release at all! What a pity!