InfiniteNow Posted February 2, 2006 Report Posted February 2, 2006 I find myself concerned that Google, our beloved mega-search engine, in order to reach the Chinese market was forced to censor itself. Google move 'black day' for China The company, whose motto is "Don't do evil", launched its new Chinese service less than a week after resisting efforts by the US Department of Justice to make it disclose data on what people were searching for. Google has lost ground to Beijing-based web search company Baidu "Google's statements about respecting online privacy are the height of hypocrisy in view of its strategy in China," said Reporters Without Borders (RWB) in a press release on Wednesday. Daily Show: Age of Misinformation(about 1 min 15 sec in... sound on, popup blocker off) Is my concern unwarranted? What do you think about this and similar trends? Quote
InfiniteNow Posted February 2, 2006 Author Report Posted February 2, 2006 Just how often does this occur in other ways? I don't mean to attack Google (per se) for trying to enter a new market, just how can such a huge population of people not find away around censorship of this nature? Quote
TheBigDog Posted February 11, 2006 Report Posted February 11, 2006 Is Hypography available in China? Bill Quote
InfiniteNow Posted February 12, 2006 Author Report Posted February 12, 2006 Is Hypography available in China? BillDoubtful, considering the nature of what we do here. Administrators... Any evidence one way or the other? Quote
IrishEyes Posted February 12, 2006 Report Posted February 12, 2006 I don't know if it's available. I'm sure T or C1ay will be checking on that one though. I am fairly certain that we have no members from China. I know that we are available in other Eastern countries. We have members from Malaysia and Thailand that I know of, and even a few from the Middle East. Good questions, and we'll see what we can find out. Quote
TheBigDog Posted February 12, 2006 Report Posted February 12, 2006 I have some work contacts in China. I will see if I can find out from a user perspective. Bill Quote
InfiniteNow Posted February 13, 2006 Author Report Posted February 13, 2006 I have some work contacts in China. I will see if I can find out from a user perspective.If they're work contacts, would they have access to a different network than the Chinese citizens (is that proper term?? seems... off???) What I mean is, if you go over to China for work, would you be restricted to the same internet limitations as the people living in China? That'd bite. Quote
InfiniteNow Posted March 1, 2006 Author Report Posted March 1, 2006 Did anyone ever hear back on any of this? Are there any Hypographers in China? Would one of us still be able to access if we logged in through one of their networks? Quote
TheBigDog Posted March 4, 2006 Report Posted March 4, 2006 I confirmed today that you can access Hypography in China. Should have had a hit from a Chinese IP today. Next step is to see if they can join and post from there. I will let you know when I find out. Bill Quote
Boerseun Posted March 4, 2006 Report Posted March 4, 2006 I reckon it should be available, unless the name and IP adress have veen explicitly defined as 'off-limits' on all routers in China. I think the only way Google could 'censor' themselves are to produce a different set of search results for all enquiries from computers with IP adresses starting with whatever China's IP range start with. To actually 'censor' it to any meaningful extent, would require a bunch of chinese secret police kinda guys systematically going through each and every web page on the internet, and marking them as either 'good' or 'bad'. And the Internet is growing much faster than these guys could play catchup, by the time they'll be done with it, 99% of the info they're censoring would be outdated. So obviously they'll be automating the thing playing with keywords, but computers have a notoriously bad time understanding context. So getting around that'll be a hitch. I think the whole issue is a storm in a teacup, and probably just a marketing ploy used by Google to appease the Chinese. Haha - appease the Chinese... jeez, Louise... there's a crease on your knees... do bees get fleas? Have you seen my keys? Quote
InfiniteNow Posted March 5, 2006 Author Report Posted March 5, 2006 They censor it based on key words. The search results appear (I am pretty sure anyway), but then when you click the link it says, "Sorry, this page is unavailable" in it's equivalent Chinese... Quote
InfiniteNow Posted February 14, 2007 Author Report Posted February 14, 2007 So, is it worth the market share when google or M$ censor themselves to be a part of the China market, or will they turn out to be only part of a larger problem? Quote
Boerseun Posted February 14, 2007 Report Posted February 14, 2007 So, is it worth the market share when google or M$ censor themselves to be a part of the China market, or will they turn out to be only part of a larger problem?This is actually a watershed issue: The vaunted 'Freedoms' the West fights for, seems to be less important than market share and profit. This will seperate the men from the boys. Where do you stand on the issue? Google, allowing itself to be cencored, says: "We will tolerate your cencoring us, the content being criticism towards your communist government, ignoring basic human rights, as long as we make bucks outta it." Don't tell me 'Google' is committed to any sort of values. It seems as if they're pretty flexible, moral-wise. Quote
gribbon Posted February 14, 2007 Report Posted February 14, 2007 Just how often does this occur in other ways?... just how can such a huge population of people not find away around censorship of this nature? I heard about this ages ago. It's said to be the most advanced internet filtering system on the planet, and has been nicknamed "the great Firewall of China". It filters out all controversial news, and other communist countries (and, of course, dictatorships) have set up/ are setting up these systems, even before China got this one. Vietnam has now got a filtering system that filters controversial news. North Korea has got (has had for ages) a filtering system for all media. Burma (Myanmar), and Eritrea, Libya, Syria, Cuba, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Equatorial Guinea, and Belarus all top the list of the most censored countries. But North Korea and Syria are probably scariest of all. In North Korea, all radios are locked onto specific government frquencies, meaning that it is not just illegal to broadcast independent information, but technically impossible. As for Syria, well, you just have to look at the kind of cartoons and billboards that are publicised, designed to evoke Anti-Semitic hate. (And promoted by the governement). I can't imagine I'll be allowed to link to a site whcih shows it, but if you go onto google and type in "Cartoon form the Syrian Arab Daily" and look on Wikipedia's articles on Anti-Semitism, you can see that there are a number of hateful cartoons that villify the Jewish population. There are similair problems in Iran...though Iran does not top the list for the most censored countries.... This link shows which countries are most censored: 10 Most Censored Countries Quote
Fatstep Posted February 15, 2007 Report Posted February 15, 2007 Try it for yourselves. Google I googled 'tiananmen square' on google china and recieved 54,900 results. I also googled 'tiananmen square' on google.com and recieved 1,270,000 results.But, in retrospect I googled "the great Firewall of China" in both of them and got 10,000 more on google china. Quote
TheBigDog Posted February 15, 2007 Report Posted February 15, 2007 Try it for yourselves. Google I googled 'tiananmen square' on google china and recieved 54,900 results. I also googled 'tiananmen square' on google.com and recieved 1,270,000 results.But, in retrospect I googled "the great Firewall of China" in both of them and got 10,000 more on google china.It is not just the number of results, it is the content that comes back. There is no mention of the massacre on google.cn. Like it never happened. Bill Quote
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