http://www.baltimoregroupblog.com/2006/02/15/congress-to-censoring-net-companies-how-do-you-sleep-at-night/ Writers, hence dissidents Sat, 5 Jul 2008 11:26:06 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.1 http://www.baltimoregroupblog.com/2006/02/15/congress-to-censoring-net-companies-how-do-you-sleep-at-night/#comment-200877 Fri, 28 Mar 2008 15:36:26 +0000 http://www.baltimoregroupblog.com/2006/02/15/congress-to-censoring-net-companies-how-do-you-sleep-at-night/#comment-200877 [...] A couple of years ago there was a hearing in the House of Representatives, lead by Tom Lantos and Chris Smith, into the business practices of American internet technology companies in repressive countries like China. They and other members of Congress harshly criticized the partnership between companies like Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, and Cisco with governments like China. The basic premise was that American companies should not do things in other countries that they wouldn’t do here in the US. As a result, the Global Online Freedom Act of 2006 was authored, and reintroduced in 2007, though it has never become law. [...] […] A couple of years ago there was a hearing in the House of Representatives, lead by Tom Lantos and Chris Smith, into the business practices of American internet technology companies in repressive countries like China. They and other members of Congress harshly criticized the partnership between companies like Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, and Cisco with governments like China. The basic premise was that American companies should not do things in other countries that they wouldn’t do here in the US. As a result, the Global Online Freedom Act of 2006 was authored, and reintroduced in 2007, though it has never become law. […]

]]> http://www.baltimoregroupblog.com/2006/02/15/congress-to-censoring-net-companies-how-do-you-sleep-at-night/#comment-546 Wed, 31 Dec 1969 16:00:00 +0000 http://www.baltimoregroupblog.com/2006/02/15/congress-to-censoring-net-companies-how-do-you-sleep-at-night/#comment-546 First of all, I would like to point out that you have simply pasted certain suctions supportive of your view of Google into your article- Google mentions it's slowness as a factor, yes, but not as the only reason for the lanuch of Google.cn. The next point I would like to mention is that Google.cn is an ADDITIONAL service. It allows fast access to information the government does not care to censor- while warning persons that this is a censored page, and so, if they have anything politically incorrect to search for, they can go to Google.com, which is STILL availible in China. Google also does yes ask that the government step in- a company has no teeth when dealing with a country, and Google does not have the political clout to do what it would like. Maybe, if you are so concerned about Human Rights in China, if this is not really a pious stool you're sitting on but a genuine position, you would support a trade boycott of all Chinese products by all free countries until their human rights conditions improve? This, I assure you, would get their attention in no time... as apposed to a bunch of pious show-offs who decide to single out search companies for biting the bullet and co-operating because they have no choice- the loss of Google in China would really be no loss to the Chinese government. First of all, I would like to point out that you have simply pasted certain suctions supportive of your view of Google into your article- Google mentions it’s slowness as a factor, yes, but not as the only reason for the lanuch of Google.cn. The next point I would like to mention is that Google.cn is an ADDITIONAL service. It allows fast access to information the government does not care to censor- while warning persons that this is a censored page, and so, if they have anything politically incorrect to search for, they can go to Google.com, which is STILL availible in China. Google also does yes ask that the government step in- a company has no teeth when dealing with a country, and Google does not have the political clout to do what it would like. Maybe, if you are so concerned about Human Rights in China, if this is not really a pious stool you’re sitting on but a genuine position, you would support a trade boycott of all Chinese products by all free countries until their human rights conditions improve? This, I assure you, would get their attention in no time… as apposed to a bunch of pious show-offs who decide to single out search companies for biting the bullet and co-operating because they have no choice- the loss of Google in China would really be no loss to the Chinese government.

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