[Politics] No Luv 4 Google, Feb 14th
Support Students for a Free Tibet and do not use Google on Feb 14th.
(Yes I know blogspot is owned by Google, that is why I am blogging it now and not on 2/14)
I use www.google.com is a lifeline at work, I use gmail as a primary email client, and I was PISSED to hear about what happened with http://www.google.cn, I thought Google was better than that. They didn't cave against the people who screamed when they started uploading books, but somehow China can make them change.
I know, I know, we have very little power to change a corporation when boatloads of $$$ are involved, but I would rather try and fail (like with Target) than to have not tried at all.
3 comments:
Let me play devil's advocate for a moment:
Google's China portal basically had the choice of running through China's 'Great Firewall' at reduced speed and having all the content blocked anyway...
...or it could censor the sites the Chinese government wants censored and put up a notice when someone searches on a blocked site that indicates "This site has been blocked.", thus allowing the people of China to know exactly what kinds of things the Chinese government doesn't want them knowing about, and thus the opportunity to get really f'ing pissed about it and maybe pressure for political change...
...or it could have told the Chinese government to piss off and lose any chance of doing real business in the fastest growing nation on earth.
Now, I know this is not a perfect solution, but at least with the Google censors and then reports that it did so approach there may be some ways in which smart Chinese web surfers will be able to circumvent the censorship. If they are going through the 'great firewall', there isn't going to be much hope.
They could even be a bit snarky and say that "This information is unavailable due to restrictions given by the Chinese Government" to really stir the pot.
Still, I can see regarding the whole letdown of the 'don't be evil' item in their charter...
I should add that the ability to restrict the flow of information to people who want it is pretty much pointless in the modern age and any government that thinks they can to any great extent is in for a rude jolt.
FIREWALLS WON'T STOP IT
DRM WON'T STOP IT
INFORMATION WANTS TO BE FREE
Information does want to be free and already people have figured ways around the great firewall of China. But this is confirming that the honeymoon is over, Google is now truly evil, just like every other large corporation. I think there is a mathematical formula that the more profitable or popular is inversely proportional to the amount of evil it has, squared.
Regardless, boycott Google on 2/14 to send a message and show some solidarity.
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