The Atheist
17th January 2010, 11:50 AM
Lovely little undeclared war on at the moment; Google, taking a line that few - or no - others would dare, is standing up to the totalitarian regime in charge of China and has decided that their policy of censorship isn't at all reasonable, so they won't partake any more.
On a commercial basis, this is an immense decision by Google - it is throwing away billions of yuan in income for a principle. This is especially amazing when no government around the world will do no more than pay lip-service to the fact that China is still highly repressed with little freedom of speech or action outside of everyday life.
Why is Google doing this? Clearly, of all institutions in the world, it can afford to, but it's unique in my memory that a public company has made this kind of stand.
There being no rational reason why private hackers would attack Google (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a8z7lS85s.Ws), it seems an inescapable conclusion that the Chinese regime was the instigator of the attacks which caused Google's rethink.
China's defence of its policies have been taken to extremes for many years, with dissenters being tortured and killed within China as it uses the weight of the yuan to silence dissent outside where governments do not speak of human rights abuses, but instead of free trade agreements.
Google. redefining social commitment for corporates.
On a commercial basis, this is an immense decision by Google - it is throwing away billions of yuan in income for a principle. This is especially amazing when no government around the world will do no more than pay lip-service to the fact that China is still highly repressed with little freedom of speech or action outside of everyday life.
Why is Google doing this? Clearly, of all institutions in the world, it can afford to, but it's unique in my memory that a public company has made this kind of stand.
There being no rational reason why private hackers would attack Google (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a8z7lS85s.Ws), it seems an inescapable conclusion that the Chinese regime was the instigator of the attacks which caused Google's rethink.
China's defence of its policies have been taken to extremes for many years, with dissenters being tortured and killed within China as it uses the weight of the yuan to silence dissent outside where governments do not speak of human rights abuses, but instead of free trade agreements.
Google. redefining social commitment for corporates.