Shame on Microsoft, Yahoo and Google for cooperating with Chinese authorities in stifling free expression on the Internet.
For instance, U.S. software giant Microsoft has agreed to block certain words such as “democracy,” “freedom” and “human rights” on its Chinese Internet portal. And Google’s news search engine doesn’t include sources that might give critical views, such as the Voice of America and the BBC.
How’s that for unleashing the power of the Internet as a democratizing force in repressive societies?
Posted by Randy Scholfield
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14 Comments
Last time I checked Microsoft, Yahoo, and Google were businesses not agents of social/governmental change. If you want to spread ‘democracy’ to those countries I suggest you pick up a rifle and get to work.
However, being a newspaper editor, you are much better suited to fight for Americans ability to publish critical views. Work against the FEC and McCain-Feingold if you’re looking for something to do.
China runs their country their way, and we run it our way. I guess we are no model, as the liberal say we have mass voter fraud, military prisons are gulags, we are on the worst top list countries of human rights abuse, and they want each individual not responsible for anything and dependent on the government.
Maybe China doesn’t want a bunch of idiots or ideologs running their country. I’m not saying China system is perfect, but their more concerned about the essentials in life and work. Their economy is expected to quaduple by 2015. We are not even going to come close to that.
Their college graduation rate is higher than half the population of the US. Their work ethics are outstanding, and they are shrewd capitalist. Many believe that this will be China’s century. Basically they will be top dog, and the USA will be treated like Canada or a European nation…Scratch that! I was hearing on NPR, that if the hispanic population continues its present growth in both birth rates and immigration, they will be more than 50% of the population of the USA by 2050. So maybe we will be the Republic of North Mexico. There is already a group of them out there wanting to take back California. Forgot the name of that group.
Well! I went off on a tangent. ;) Along with teaching children Intelligent Design, we should also teach them spanish and mandrian chinese.
I have a good friend in China, believe me, tne words “human rights” don’t exsist in that country. Most of China’s population live in poverty, despite the fact that everyone works (if allowed). The Chinese government trying to censure the internet should be no surprize to anyone. If our country truly cared about human rights, we’d forgo trade with China, but in this country, money is the name of that tune.
Randy, Before we all bent out of shape about China’s freedom we need to plug the leaks in our own freedoms, which our neocon {Nazi} President and his cohorts are steadily bleeding out of our Constitution.
In my 70 years I’ve never seen anything like this jerk Bush.
He is allowing those with their first loyalty to Israel’s morally bankrupt society to use our military to commit what is tantamount to murder. What the Israelis have done to the Palestinians with the military hardware we’ve given them is criminal. The World Court in Brussels stands ready to indict both Bush and Sharon for war-crimes, violations of both international law and the Geneva Conventions. America dares not join the World Court for those reasons. Criticizing China, at this point, is absolutely hypocritical.
At the rate Bush Inc. is taking us down we we’ll probably meet China on their way up.
94% of Americans believe the Supreme Court has been corrupted, judging by their awful decision about private property rights { a direct violation of the fifth amendment}.
Microsoft, Yahoo and Google got the internet into China and it would seem that that, in itself, is quite an accomplishment.
Before worring about China we need to clean our own house.
While I condemn any censorship, I’m not all that bent out of shape over Microsoft’s agreement with China. It may have been the only way to get the Chinese people online, and if they’ve got the smarts God gave 12-year-olds, they’ll find ways around it, the same way our kids manage to find porn, despite our best efforts.
The amazing thing about the internet is that at some point, everything is connected to everything else, and if you’re on it, and whatever you’re looking for is too, all it takes is some effort and skill to get there. Nobody can block all the paths without destroying the whole thing.
So Microsoft, Google and the rest of them installed the blocks that the Chinese government insisted on, knowing their only partial effectiveness, to get them connected. Now it’s up to the creativity and thirst of the people to find ways around them.
Godspeed!
Randy, Before we all get bent out of shape about China’s freedom, we need to plug the leaks in our own freedoms, which our neocon {Nazi} President and his cohorts are steadily bleeding out of our Constitution.
In my 70 years I’ve never seen anything like this jerk Bush.
He is allowing those with their first loyalty to Israel’s morally bankrupt society to use our military to commit what is tantamount to murder. What the Israelis have done to the Palestinians with the military hardware we’ve given them is criminal. The World Court in Brussels stands ready to indict both Bush and Sharon for war-crimes, violations of both international law and the Geneva Conventions. America dares not join the World Court for those reasons. Criticizing China, at this point, is absolutely hypocritical.
At the rate Bush Inc. is taking us down we we’ll probably meet China on their way up.
94% of Americans believe the Supreme Court has been corrupted, judging by their awful decision about private property rights { a direct violation of the fifth amendment}.
Microsoft, Yahoo and Google were able set-up the internet in China and it would seem that that, in itself, is quite an accomplishment.
Before worrying about China we need to clean-up our own house.
Ed, before you further humiliate yourself by likening President Bush to a Nazi, I suggest you pick up a history book or at least click on the History Channel. Surely you can at least figure out a remote control.
Jimmy, The sad fact remains that there are more similarities than differences in the his actions. I certainly take no pleasure in seeing the Constitution being shredded. Perhaps some those who blindly support him Intentionally do. This is a very serious matter.
China has been “trying on” all things Western for quite some time now. Keeping what it can use and improve, and discarding the rest. And yes, at their present rate of industrial growth, they will be the new super-power in the world. And we, as a nation, will be the leading factor in this. All in the name of corporate greed and profit. And when China has all it needs from us, we too will be discarded like yesterdays garbage. Use of the internet will be a two-edged sword in China, just like everywhere else. I do have to agree with Jed that China will more than likely get more than it bargained for with the coming of the internet. As far as the civil rights concerns, political concerns, and all the rest of that crap, I truly believe that we all, myself included, need to ask ourselves what we have done in our own little circle to make this a better world. America’s history concerning civil/human rights is so very lacking that it is almost laughable to think that we can possibly be an example for anyone else. Or have the right to try to enforce on others, what we have never practiced here on our own soil.
This weblog is a great idea..made possible by the Internet.
Ed Fried(brain)mann
You may be 70 years old, but I guess you haven’t been blessed with any real, clear thinking. Are you an anti-semite ? All of your postings have something bad to say about Israel. Maybe you should go lie down and put a cool, damp rag on your forehead.
There. That’s better.
I agree with Ed on this one. The US has been supporting Israel’s military aggressiveness and terrorism against the Arab world for far too long. No wonder most of the Middle East harbors such hatred for America, our foreign policy regarding Israel has been the foundation of their terror attacks against us for years. We need to develop alternative energy sources and heed the advice of the late Richard Nixon “There is nothing we can do for those people, we need to leave them alone”.
Bugger, Perhaps you can learn something.
Main Entry: Sem·ite
Pronunciation: ’se-”mIt, esp British ’sE-”mIt
Function: noun
Etymology: French sémite, from Semitic Shem, from Late Latin, from Greek SEm, from Hebrew ShEm
1 a : a member of any of a number of peoples of ancient southwestern Asia including the Akkadians, Phoenicians, Hebrews, and Arabs b : a descendant of these peoples
2 : a member of a modern people speaking a Semitic language.
Hey Jimmy,
The sad fact is that Bush’s grandfather Prescott Bush, and his partner George Herbert Walker,
were nazi sypathizers who provided much of the financial support for the third reich, even while we were at war with Germany. They were also party to a plot to overthrow the government and install a nazi-style regime here. Having never heard either Bush repudiate that part of their family history, I have to wonder how much of it they do support!