How To Make A Mountain Out Of A Mole Hill
While all the major Internet companies have taken flak for caving in to Beijing's censorship demands in one way or another, Google has been unfairly pilloried over its new Chinese search portal, Google.cn, which it admits will filter results to toe the Party line. Lest our readers be confused about the whole matter, there are a few points that we'd like to clear up. First, the original Google.com is still available, unfiltered, here in China. Your search for "Free Tibet" or "Taiwan Independence" will yield the same results in Nanjing as it does in New York, whether done in English or Chinese. Of course, clicking on many of those results will lead to an "Error - Page not found", because such pages are obviously blocked here. But simply copying the link and putting it into a proxy server will get around that with a minimum of fuss.Note: this is from the editorial blog of the Chinese Economic Review.Second, although performing these illicit searches on the new, filtered Google.cn will not display any of these results (which is a pity), it's not the end of the world. Presumably many Chinese net surfers already know that their content is being filtered, but even if they didn't, they will now see a message from Google which says something like "To comply with certain laws, some results are not displayed here", thereby openly admitting to the user that he is currently a victim of censorship.Now I ask you, dear reader: what better way to bring about the end of censorship than by constantly showing readers that they are not getting everything that's out there?
Via The Stalwart
Comments (9)
jj
Google's censorship to comply with Chinese authorities is evil. Tim Swanson seems to believe that, as long as a company's activities generates profit it will lead to good. This is not true.
If a taxicab driver knowingly drives a bank robber in a heist, he is guilty of theft, even if he does not do the actual stealing and only exacts a fare for his transportation services.
Published: February 23, 2006 9:00 AM
Frank N Stein
Google not displaying links is evil? Then what is the moral status of any company that deals with the US government - all the regulations, taxes and various government controls that go well beyond what would exist in a free market society?
Published: February 23, 2006 9:31 AM
Tim Swanson
jj,
Is anyone who files taxes with the IRS culpable as a war criminal due to the fact that the monies fund the war in Iraq?
If Google wants to do business in China per se, it must comply with whatever censorship rules the bureaucrats want (you might as well point fingers at any media outlet here for complying with the FCC). So unfortunately some information is not available (although as the article notes, this is easy to avoid). The alternative of course is that there is no access to Google at all which doesn't help anyone period.
You might as well blame Google for not having the best or accurate search results if you are going to blame them for it not existing. Imagine if you will an ineffecient or incomplete index of the web which does not include certain material that you have grown accustomed to. You should look at it as if they have not found that material, a condition which plagues many other search engines... why is no one yelling at other search engines providers (such as Yahoo or MSN) for not having a inde that is as comprehensive as Google's?
Senator: Are you aware that you are doing a public disservice by providing an inferior product?
Yahoo: Uhh, you're right, we are sorry for not providing a better service, it is anti-human that our index is not as comprehensive
Note, you might have a stronger case if Google replaced the censored information with propaganda, but they are not.
Published: February 23, 2006 9:58 AM
jj
I agree that Google, in providing a service (an index of links to web sites) has the right to limit it as the company sees fit. But, what happens when it is asked by the Chinese (or American government) to provide a list of ip addresses that searched for specific keywords?
How far must a company go to be culpably complicit?
Manufacture gags and blindfolds for dictators? (Electronic or otherwise.)
Clean executioners weapons?
Shoot for them?
Published: February 23, 2006 11:04 AM
Frank N Stein
jj,
It would seem that at the point any employee of Google, at the request of Google management, violates the liberty of an individual, they are going too far. Shooting someone? Check. Cleaning weapons? Well if the company was a gun cleaning firm and did not know that this specific cleaning request was to kill innocent people, I don't know how they could be culpable. Is an American gun firm morally liable if a police officer uses that weapon to arrest someone whose crime involves growing a plant (ie, a political prisoner)?
We live in a world of massive thug outfits that like to call themselves government, and those who wish to trade goods/services with others have to live under the dictates of these various thugs. I don't know if there is a high road here, besides moving to a log cabin in the middle of nowhere.
Published: February 23, 2006 11:27 AM
C. Cathey
So if I am reading this correctly, then the Chinese government has just as many idiots as the US government. They have forced Google to create "Google.cn, which ... will filter results to toe the Party line" and yet insured almost no one will use the new site since "the original Google.com is still available, unfiltered, here in China".
Also, a quick reality check:
1) Google.cn has a link to Google.com
2) Searches for "Ludwig von Mises", "Free Tibet" or "Taiwan Independence" yield valid results. Although fewer by comparison the actual number is still huge. For example:
"Free Tibet"
google.com: 18,200,000
google.cn: 7,530,000
3) Don't France and Germany restrict google and yahoo websearches as well? Haven't conservatives in the US been calling for blue laws on internet searches for years? Haven't US modern liberals been calling for taxes and licenses for years? Why the hate pointed at China and Google over this? I think this is just another cover for profit envy.
CC
Published: February 23, 2006 11:43 AM
William
Google does not censor anyone, NOR IS IT ABLE TO DO SO!!!!!!
ONLY GOVERNMENT WITH ITS MONOPOLY ON THE USE OF FORCE CAN CENSOR SOMEONE!!!!!
Google simply and wisely, in my opinion, chooses to comply with the desires of the Chinese government to censor information. Is Google in this capacity an arm of the government? Maybe?
The issue here is: Are the Chinese people better off with some Google than none? I would say YES. Is some Google going to destroy the Communist Evil faster than none? I would say YES.
Google could take a stand on principal and fight to catch up as the government of China slowly lets up on the censoring or they can play the same stupid game as all their competitors. Certainly the owners of Google, those that matter, have chosen the latter.
Besides, if you hate Google that much for participating then you are free to use another web site that does take a stand on principal.
Published: February 23, 2006 2:48 PM
Paul D
While Google's decision to assist the Chinese government in restricting information to its citizens is unfortunate, it's really Yahoo that should be taking criticism from those who love freedom. After all, they've actively participated twice in getting people jailed for their words and beliefs.
Published: February 24, 2006 4:02 AM
anarkhos
The real scandal went undetected as Cicso Systems created the web site filtering system used to block sites.
Published: March 1, 2006 10:52 PM