4 links for you

[liam88]

Google image search for "Tiananmen Sqaure" at google.com

Google image search for "Tianmen Sqaure" at goodle.cn (Chinese censored version)

Don't use Google

Free Tibet

Get's you thinking.

[Poor Student]

Sure an online game I and a few other foot.ie members play called hattrick which is a football manager game with leagues bases in a good half of the world's states did something along these lines. Hoping to expand the Chinese league from hundreds to thousands by introducing a Chinese script version they also changed the name of Taiwan as it had always been called to Chinese Taipei in case the Chinese government would block the site out. Quite an offence to the hundreds of Taiwanese players. To cap it all off the game never really expanded in China. With China's cast population people are more likely to acquiesce to their less than democratic desires rather than pass up tapping into a huge market.

[monkey magic]

this is an interesting subject for many reasons, in the main, googles succumbing to censorship has actually been quite damaging to the company. the main reason being that up until now, google was seen as a morally conscious company- the guys who founded the company have these ten or so rules by which they claim to run the company, the main ones being "you can make money without being evil" and "democracy on the web works". and less than a year ago larry paige(one of the founders) said that google would never agree to chinese censorship.

when they announced that they were launching a censored google.cn the company actually lost something like 12 billion off its share price value, apparently a lot of their investors were intensely opposed to the move, despite the potential for more profit.

[liam88]

Google.com image search for "Tibet Flag"
Google China image search for "Tibet Flag"

google.com image search for "Dali Lama"
Google China image search for "Dali Lama"

and just to illustrate China's hardline opposition to Burmese democracy......

Google.com image search for "Suu Kyi"
Google China image search for "Suu Kyi" (note the regime flag in the background of the middle one!)

Try a few yourself-it's astonishing and disgraceful how badly a company can sell-out; restricting the people of a nation from even seeing a flag or a photo of a political or religious leader, purely to make money

[John83]

www.scroogle.org

[Ash]

Google.com image search for "Tibet Flag"
Google China image search for "Tibet Flag"

__________________
Long live the Pope! Free Burma (NLD/SNLD), Free Tibet (Burma Campaign/Free Tibet Campaign Alliance), Free the Rossport 5! (ACCOMPLISHED 30/09/05)
Reply With Quote

Reminds me of the Family Guy episode when theres a Free Tibet rally.
Peter sees the "Free Tibet" signs and says "I'll take it", then he rings China
to trade it for all the tea

[REVIP]

Liam,

The wonderful thing about the Net is that you can subvert authority!

If you want a Chinese language Google, I assume Google Taiwan would work;

http://www.google.com.tw/

[liam88]

Liam,

The wonderful thing about the Net is that you can subvert authority!

If you want a Chinese language Google, I assume Google Taiwan would work;

http://www.google.com.tw/

Aye but it's not about me wanting a Chinese language Google! It's about people in China and Tibet (who can only get Google China) being deprived of Freedom of speech and free information (I know governemtns hold things back in every country but China is expectionally to far).

The point is that Google has sold out the Tibetan and Chinese people for a few million dollars and is helping one of the worst human rights abusers i the world continue their opression.

[REVIP]

I agree with you.

But in true martial arts fashion, the thing to do is to use the strength of Google against itself.

If you are in touch with Chinese and Tibetan human rights campaigners, encourage them to use Google.tw as their search engine. Surely it should be no more complicated than us choosing Google.ie or Google.com or Google.co.uk

[liam88]

I agree with you.

But in true martial arts fashion, the thing to do is to use the strength of Google against itself.

If you are in touch with Chinese and Tibetan human rights campaigners, encourage them to use Google.tw as their search engine. Surely it should be no more complicated than us choosing Google.ie or Google.com or Google.co.uk

Aye it would be because we live in fre democracy and can acess any Google we like...but in China and Tibet you can ONLYacess google.cn thanls to Chian's "great firewall"

[Lim till i die]

Aye it would be because we live in fre democracy and can acess any Google we like...but in China and Tibet you can ONLYacess google.cn thanls to Chian's "great firewall"

Great Firewall

Sorry, couldn't resist.

In fairness Liam I'm sure your average Tibetan/Chinese peasant has more pressing issues on his/her mind then their internet access. Typical human rights campaigners, wildly out of touch with the common man and the real world

[REVIP]

Liam,

I have no idea how these things work.

When I go to Google.cn and type in Tiananmen Square, I get the censored Google. However if I type in Google.tw on Google.cn, I get the Taiwanese Google straightaway, which is completely free to show whatever images it wants.

If Google.cn allows access to Google.tw here, how is it prevented from doing so in China?

Just asking.

[John83]

The point is that Google has sold out the Tibetan and Chinese people for a few million dollars and is helping one of the worst human rights abusers i the world continue their opression.

Google already filters results for some wonderfully free countries, like the US and some countries in Europe. Many holocost denial sites for example are filtered out. I'm not saying that these are entirely comparable, but there's censorship aplenty in the west - it just happens that you probably agree with it (or did you even know?).

Anyway, if Google hadn't done what they have in China, the Chinese people wouldn't have any more freedom than they have now. They'd have had to have used some other government approved (or government written) search engine instead. I doubt that one would have a note on it that the results are filtered.

While I think Google's actions are not entirely in line with "do no evil", I do think that they're not exactly reprehensible. How many Chinese-made items do you own? The west props up that economy, pumping money like no one's business into it. Wallmart, for example, are responsible for an appreciable percentage of China's GNP.

BTW, the whole censorship thing is in debate in China right now - even senior people in their government want it reconsidered.

I have no idea how these things work... If Google.cn allows access to Google.tw here, how is it prevented from doing so in China?

Just asking.

It's often referred to as the "Great Firewall of China" [Wikipedia]. It's like a big government filter that all Chinese internet traffic passes through.

Saudi Arabia has a similar system.