Google Refuses to Keep Censoring Chinese Content

[Prometherion]

Sorry China its Ask Jeeves for you!

That is the price of communism.

No, it's the price of stupidity. Communism and censorship don't have to go hand in hand, though in practically every communist society we've seen, it has.

Yeah i know that, it was a joke.

 

[Ajna]

You all should probably get one thing people, when the government in China says A most of the people there THINK A.

When the Government says this and that is a bad thing than most of the Chinese people THINK and BELIEVE that it is a bad thing.

But also could be that i have been seeing and reading the wrong documentarys.

You're confusing China with North Korea. China just censors people and makes them disappear. NK censors people to the extent where there's no need to make them disappear.

 

[DTWolfwood]

...

simply put, im not taking either side. They are making a huge mistake from some knee jerk reaction to hacking. But pretending Google has a soul or conscience is a laughable thought. Profit is profit and they did what they had to do to cut their loses as you said. i do not condemn them for the layoffs, just pointing out that they will do what it takes to make a buck and that morality or conscience has nothing to do with business. But when the masses get up in unison to defend their actions as "the right thing to do" after 4 years of compliance and acting the big bad corporation just does not sit well with me.

as the Chinese press have been saying "They are politicizing a commercial matter" and that is more shady to me than if they just kept working with the Chinese Gov.

edit: yes it does sound like im anti google here (since i do stand to lose some money) but its more a rant against the reaction to the news. I do appreciate your point of view so please don't think i have a vendetta against anyone XD

 

[DTWolfwood]

...

Look at Apple and then tell me that brand loyalty doesn't boost sales. They ain't just a search engine anymore; they have Android and that other OS on the way too. Now they just get to wave the 'Champions of freedom' shtick with it too, let's them really set themselves as the opposite of Apple.

So long as u realize this is mere pretense of morality im happy ^-^
Still a terrible fiscal move imo. yeh they get to look good but boy is this some silly act.
now on the off chance China doesnt terminate their contract we would have some real news on our hands

 

[ark123]

...

simply put, im not taking either side. They are making a huge mistake from some knee jerk reaction to hacking. But pretending Google has a soul or conscience is a laughable thought. Profit is profit and they did what they had to do to cut their loses as you said. i do not condemn them for the layoffs, just pointing out that they will do what it takes to make a buck and that morality or conscience has nothing to do with business. But when the masses get up in unison to defend their actions as "the right thing to do" after 4 years of compliance and acting the big bad corporation just does not sit well with me.

as the Chinese press have been saying "They are politicizing a commercial matter" and that is more shady to me than if they just kept working with the Chinese Gov.

edit: yes it does sound like im anti google here (since i do stand to lose some money) but its more a rant against the reaction to the news. I do appreciate your point of view so please don't think i have a vendetta against anyone XD

It's always a commercial matter when it comes to big corporations. No giant corporation is nice and idealistic to a fault, that's how they got big in the first place.
It's not really just a commercial matter in the sense that they're employing criminals in order to steal information (which might as well be money when it comes to Google). It's not a matter of principle, it's a matter of getting out of a place where thieves are rewarded, not punished.
The reason they're trying to start this movement is obviously that they'd like to stay in China because of the giant market, but they'd like to not be hacked while they're there. I agree that it's ridiculous to assume G is doing this out of some sense of morality or kindness, but they ARE trying to help in the sense that they need a better political climate if they want to succeed there.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

I don't really know the situation in China, but surely with the amount of proxy servers and suchlike, there has to be ways to get to the rest of the internet?

I'm sure there's some stuff blocked to most people, but anyone clued up must get full access?

Or are their stupidly harsh penalties like jail for circumventing the blocks?

Also, surely most of China does end up knowing about its own history and its own political, social and economic stances, etc? To me, if I knew of Tiamenen Square and went to look it up, and found no mention of it online, just a message saying 'due to laws some results can not be shown', I'd just know my country was ashamed of its history.

Now of course, just about every country has done some terrible things, but putting fingers in ears and going 'lalala we can't hear you' is not really a productive way to deal with it.

Like I say, I'm commenting thru ignorance in the main, maybe most of China's population doesn't know about history and Tianemen Square is just known as a nice place to go for a picnic, it's just very strange from a western perspective is all.