google conforms to chinese internet censorship

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google conforms to chinese internet censorship

Postby kilroy » Mon Oct 18, 2004 12:14 pm

presumably to get it's slice of the chinese pie.

http://p2pnet.net/story/2550

Google China news blocks confirmed


p2pnet.net News:- The Associated Press says it's confirmed that Google "conforms" to practices which stop surfers from accessing certain Chinese news sites.

The claim appeared for the first time in p2pnet when we spoke with Bill Xia, the ceo of Dynamic Internet Technology which runs services aimed at allowing Chinese people to obtain un-filtered news.

Xia told us Google practices are helping to maintain a Chinese online 'matrix' which keeps people from accessing some censor-free news sites.

DIT "conducted tests that found Google omits results from the government-banned sites if search requests are made through computers connecting to the Internet in China," says AP.

Ealier, we'd spoken with Google's Debbie Frost who told us some sites are blocked, "to create the best possible news search experience for our users."

For example, she said, "they may display improperly in our service, or be inaccessible to users. We have not included links to a number of sources that are not accessible to mainland China Internet users. These sources were not included because their sites are inaccessible and therefore their inclusion does not provide a good experience for our News users who are looking for information. These sources represent only a tiny fraction of the sources available in simplified Chinese."

A volunteer working with Dynamic Internet Technology's DynaWeb - a free proxy network created to circumvent internet blocking in China - noticed Google's Chinese news returned different results depending whether the search was conducted in China or in the US.


Xia told p2pnet he confirmed the report through proxies in China.

The Chinese government controls the media and the military and through them, is able to create a 'Matrix' that hides websites that relate to civil rights and opinions the Chinese authorities don't want people to see, he said.


"And of course, these are the only places people can find this find of 'forbidden information' and by excluding them, Google is actively helping the Chinese government to enhance its 'Matrix'."

[NOTE: If you're Chinese and you're looking for a way to access independent Net news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent website blocking outside of China. Download it here and feel free to post it on your site to help spread it around.]
when they ask how you feeling
you tell em you feeling like something important died screaming
you tell em you feeling like something even more important arrived breathing
something you should probably try feeding
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