Firstly we are all saddened by the news from Haiti and our thoughts and prayers must be with everyone there as we follow the horrific scenes on our media channels.Those of us interested in contributing to help victims of the earthquake in Haiti, the NY Times provide a list of contact information and links for some agencies that plan to provide relief. Lets hope World Governments mobilise forces as soon as possible.
Debate on who would you "trust" Google or the Chinese Government. Of course, no contest it seems at present. Everyone is delighted at the fact that Google is no longer comfortable censoring search results at the call of the Chinese government and is taking its position seriously and could pull out of the market which will cost the corporation.
We need to trust corporations such as Google.
Jeff Jarvis says " I can well be accused of being a Google fanboy; I wrote the book. But I have been consistent in my criticism of Google’s actions in China. And so now I have not choice but to become even more of a fanboy. I applaud Google for finally standing up to the Chinese dictatorship and for free speech. Will the Chinese people revolt at losing Google? We can only hope. Will other companies now have to hesitate before doing the dictators’ bidding? We can only hope. Will Google be punished by Wall Street? It probably will. But as I’ve argued, we should hope that Google’s pledge, Don’t be evil, will one day be chiseled over the doors of Wall Street. "
In China itself, the news was heavily censored.The only government response came later in the day from Xinhua, the official news agency, which ran a brief item quoting an anonymous official who was “seeking more information on Google’s statement that it could quit China.”
It is clear that Google executives have been concerned that the decision to censor the search results on google.cn, to filter out topics banned by Chinese censors, was out of sync with the company’s pledge, “Don’t be evil.”
“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,” David Drummond, senior vice president for corporate development and the chief legal officer, said in a statement.
A view of the PR strategy:
"Google has taken the China corporate communications playbook, wrapped it in oily rags, doused it in gasoline and dropped a lit match on it. In China, foreign companies tend to be deferential to the authorities to the point of obsequiousness, in a way that you would almost certainly never encounter in the United States or Europe. . . . In this situation Google has undertaken a bet-the-farm confrontational communications approach in China. They will not have made this decision lightly. Dressed up in the polite language above is what is essentially an ultimatum: Allow us to present uncensored search results to our Chinese users or we’ll walk. "
In China, search requests that include words like “Tiananmen Square massacre” or “Dalai Lama” come up blank. In recent months, the government has also blocked YouTube, Google’s video-sharing service.
Past New York Times coverage:
