Nothing is as handsome as a secret - French proverb
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Google reminds us about web censorship
INTERNET SEARCH LEADER Google, a guardian of free speech and openness, has revisited its views on web censorship, taking to its blog to tell us how bad governments are.
Since Google stopped colluding with the Chinese government it's been pretty down on the whole business of government snooping, and now it tells us that "Repressive regimes are building firewalls and cracking down on dissent online - dealing harshly with anyone who breaks the rules."
According to the Open Net Initiative, the number of governments that censor the Internet has grown from about four in 2002 to over 40 today. Evil beggars, and we know who are the biggest offenders, don't we Google?
Rachel Whetstone, Google's vice president of global communications and public affairs, said, "Censorship of the web is a growing problem. China is the most polarising example, but it is not the only one."
She added that a number of countries had blocked access to Google's products. In fact, out of the 100 countries in which it offers services, 25 have chosen to block things like Blogger, Youtube and Google Docs.
Google feels that it does have some responsibility to censor content, and Whetstone said that it uses this in moderation. For example, although it will remove content from searches, should they contain child pornography for example, it will only act in these 'narrow circumstances'. Also likely to be smitten from its records are results that include credit card numbers and other general bits of criminality and scammery.
Google does not, however, censor political debate, or rather, as Whetstone puts it, "We carefully evaluate whether or not to establish a physical presence in countries where political censorship is likely to happen."
However, some government censorship is fine, as long as it is the work of democratically-elected governments, presuming that some of those still exist. As an example she said that Google will remove pro-Nazi material in France and Germany. Heartwarming stuff.
Protecting German children is also close to Google's heart, and by its own standard it invokes the 'safe search' option whenever a user in that country starts searching the web. Sod the other kids though.
"We have a bias in favour of people's right to free expression. We are driven by a belief that more information means more choice, more freedom and ultimately more power for the individual," added Whetstone.
We prefer the Eric Schmidt quote. What was it again?
Oh yes, it was, "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place."
So, according to Google, government censorship is bad, but government surveillance is okay. Have we got that right, Google? µ
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now www.chinareallysucks.com is blocked in China! big question is why it took so long!!!
Yesterday, I used google.de with these search words Minol+Grundstück+Entschädigung+Treuhand.In English: Minol (company name), allottment/land parcel, compensation, Treuhand = government department name that dealt with assetts in the former East Germany. Our family's land in the former East Berlin was confiscated without compensation by the Kohl government, so I check from time to time, if they have developed a sense of justice. (Of course not.)
These are political terms relating to reunification criminality, nothing to do with protecting children, or Jewish topics. Google results displayed a note that some results were not shown and when I clicked on the link it said that some blockages had been put in place, no specifics, no reason - for this purely political topic which is about 'stealing' land.
No, my dearest google, you are blocking to protect the fraudsters. They've probably deceived you that these were porn or anti-semitic sites, not good enough for this Kohl victim.
China censors strike Again
First google, now choogling
New search engine specific to China, (www.choogling.com), launched to fill the void left by google’s departure, has now been blocked, and the site hacked!
According to Mao Ze Wrong, one of the developers of the search engine, choogling has no plans to retreat to Hong Kong or move its operations outside of China. “Choogling was developed in and for China. We remain 100 percent committed to China and serving the Chinese netizens.”
Choogling was launched in beta test mode early this month, but quickly attracted hundreds of millions of China-specific searches in China. The name was suggestive of a blend of China + googling = choogling. But choogling actually comes from “chu-ge,” (the sounds of a people surrounded by enemies) and “ling” (clever, as in response to a sharp insult).
More details at: http://chinareallysucks.com/Site/New_Stuff/Entries/2010/4/23_China_censors_say%3A_No_More_Choogling_.html
Oh. Well, if that's what a company whose origin is cloudy, appeared out of nowhere with billions to buy server farms, has a presence everywhere, is expanding into dozens of unrelated areas, and the "cover" of which is perfect for net surveillance says, then I stand corrected.
At best, you're practicing a subtle censorship of your own, trying to stifle opinion.
You call that a website ?
It isn't even a dissident blog.
You little troll, go back to playing on Slashdot while munching Cheetos in your mother's basement.
Yeah, google is horrible.
WHY hasn't l'inq had a story about the Obama justice dept. indicting Thomas Drake, former NSA, whistleblower.
They're intimidating whistleblowers in the US electronic surveillance field.
Get up to speed L'INQ!
Goodbye google; good riddance. China doesn’t need outsiders telling it what to do. It needs its own homegrown search engine, with built in switches to vary degrees of truth, censorship and nationalistic pride. That's why we will soon be launching choogling.com
See details at http://chinareallysucks.com/Site/New_Stuff/Entries/2010/4/1_no_more_googling%2C_keep_on_choogling!!!!.html
I'm not sure what go_ogle is doing, but google (according to their public statements) only asked the NSA to help find the people who hacked them, and they said they first made sure the NSA had limited access and could not see general private info on people (possibly true since they must have plenty to hide themselves).
Now a whole different matter is why they asked the NSA, a national security agency for the government to help with an attack that is coming from outside the country and is on a company not anything run by the US government, if it had been an hack sponsored by the chinese government it would be the CIA that might be interested, if it was illegal access to a nationwide system it might be the FBI, but the NSA should NOT be involved, and it is indeed a bit odd, a damn bit odd.
But still, they are not 'openly merging with NSA' and saying it in that way like some fringe lunatic doesn't help either side.
Who *needs* such a reminder? The key feature of those in power today is saying the exact opposite of intentions and actions.
And for those who somehow missed it: go_ogle is openly merging with NSA.
As long as Paul Otellini is listed in Google's Board of Directors, I will be fine everything what Google thinks.