While Spring is something to cheer for, as it battles on with coldness and Winter, there is something else going on worth more of our attention.
By now most should know the ongoing saga between Google and the Chinese government. While Google is the champion of freedom with its “Don’t be evil” slogan, it has attracted criticism for complying with the censorship when entering the China market. Things seem to have turn 180 degrees a few weeks ago when Google threatens to pull out of China. It cited a few cyber attacks on the Gmail account of a few Chinese activities (and such attacks in general) as the reason. It also wants to stop complying with the strict censorship the Chinese government imposes.
Now it has just done that! After talks broke down between the two parties, Google seems to have gone for it. www.google.cn would now be directed to www.google.com.hk where there is uncensored search results. Sensitive topics such as the Tiananmen Massacre and Fa Lung Gong are now available as search results. While I’m not sure if people in China are able to access it like I do, this is what I get
The homepage says “欢迎您来到谷歌搜索在中国的新家” or “Welcome to the new home of Google in China”.
I think this is a historic movement. It shows that there are still individuals and organizations willing to stand up for what is right. While how much effect this has on the freedom of speech in China is yet to be seen, I would like to thank Google for taking such a big step. It is hard not to succumb to political pressure and economic gains, and whatever the true intention of Google, it has my full respect.
However, this should not be a moment of triumph, but just a glimpse of hope. The next thing to follow is almost certainly the complete ban of Google in China. The road to freedom and democracy is far and long.
UPDATE: People in China are unable to view any uncensored search results due to the firewall. This has turned out to be a mere symbolic gesture. No real benefit for the netizens.
3 comments:
Well, netizens like me are not affected by the censorship at all. We have software which go over the firewall. I am certainly not going to be affected at all when I go back. I can use VPN service provided by our university.(http://www-uxsup.csx.cam.ac.uk/vpdn/) Or I can use ssh tunnel from SRCF. (http://www.pseudorandom.co.uk/2003/cam/srcf-ssh/)
I don't believe in Chinese's government's censorship, so it doesn't exist for me.
while what you say is true but most people are not as computer literate as you i guess. They could have never known that an outside world exists on the internet, let alone trying to utilize software to bypass the firewalls.
I guess you do have a point here, even my parents don't know how to bypass censorship. Bypassing GFW is mainly done by computer literate youth.
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