Google and China

[Deviant Ollam]

Re: Google and China

Heh, you beat me to the punch, DT. Daisy Belle shot me this link earlier this evening and i meant to post a thread about it.

Personally, i'm glad we're seeing this shift, if it actually comes to pass. I am given to wonder if it has to do mostly with...

* their infrastructure getting attacked
* worries about public opinion in the face of China's actions
* deciding to "Do Less Evil"

... and i don't rightly know which reason i'd like to think is the primary one. as i say... it mostly remains to be seen how they wind up pursuing this, but it's a very interesting development, nonetheless.

Now all we have to see is Cisco and some of the other big players who contribute to China's human rights abuses do an about-face and we might just have some real progress.

[The Dark Tangent]

After reading this:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/...-to-china.html

It looks like Google has come to terms with what it means to do business in China, and isn't liking it. My feeling is one to many targeted attacks against their infrastructure did the trick.

From the post:

"These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered--combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web--have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China. We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China."

Remember, Google isn't the only one targets like this.