Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Google Rolled Over (or Got Rolled) In China
From the BBC: " Agreeing to block access to websites making reference to material which the Chinese government regards as sensitive - such as democratic reform and Taiwanese independence - will speed up the site - currently slowed down by Chinese-imposed filters - and offer Google a greater foothold in the burgeoning Chinese market.
"No to e-mail
"Google has acknowledged that its decision to launch in China will be seen as inconsistent with its mission to make information universally accessible but believes it has little choice.
"We don't want to risk becoming irrelevant or useless due to the way that our content is blocked or filtered currently," Google's senior policy adviser Andrew McLaughlin told the BBC Radio Four's Today programme.
"We feel it is a step forward. Not a big step forward but a step forward. We understand that many people will find the decision either puzzling or objectionable," he said.
The Washington Post reported:
- Within minutes of the launch of the new site bearing China's Web suffix ".cn," searches for the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement showed scores of sites omitted and users directed to articles condemning the group posted on Chinese government Web sites.
- Searches for other sensitive subjects such as exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama, Taiwan independence, and terms such as "democracy" and "human rights" yielded similar results.
