Comments on: Google to censor no more

By: Florian Wardell

Florian Wardell — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 15:45:17 +0000

http://arstechnica.com/security/news/2010/01/rese...

Some heads are going to be chopped off at the CPP's cyber division.

By: @MarianoCalixte

@MarianoCalixte — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 12:42:09 +0000

If the trouble is just about business conditions, I still side with Google, but I prefer that they say that directly and not use the human rights excuse.

You know me enough to know that I just hope Google finds a way of hurting the Chinese government, but if it's 100% money-centered it's not really legitimate, is it?

By: florianwardell

florianwardell — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 11:56:01 +0000

"we will carefully monitor conditions in China, including new laws and other restrictions on our services. If we determine that we are unable to achieve the objectives outlined we will not hesitate to reconsider our approach to China."
They don't even mention human rights.

Basic freedom to information and an open business environment can't exist without each other.
The situation in China is actually WORSE than 5 years ago: No youtube, no facebook, no twitter, no open search results.
The beauty of it all is that human rights and business are the same thing here: if google were producing let's say fast food, they wouldn't care about it, but as it stands they are above all an information provider. Without human rights, they can't do their job.

I think people are confused by the fact that the attack was aimed at human right activist accounts. Google stated that they will leave China because there was an attack, but not because the attack was aimed at activists. (Of course that didn't help, but still).