Some Google Searches Now Blocked In China

bannable writes with this from the Wall Street Journal: "Google Inc. said that its Web search service in mainland China was partially blocked Wednesday, the deadline for the company to extend its Internet operating license in the country. The company said the blockage appeared to affect only search queries generated by mainland China users of the company's Google Suggest function, which automatically recommends search queries based on the first few letters a user types into the search box."

Doesn't that happen anyways?

[Anonymous Coward]

When I type in "Hent" it doesn't prop up any suggested searches, despite there being a popular and obvious topic, even with safesearch off.

*AC to hide my dirty little secret.

jack

[tianfan]

This issue is so simple guys. Every country has their own laws, this applies US too. A Chinese company comes to US to do their business, it has to obey US Laws. If it doesn't do so, the result will be the same as google in China. I hope you guys can take a different perspective to look at this issue. I agree that democracy and freedom of speech will be the ultimate final goal where Chinese government pursuits. However, they are not the most important issues in China now. In order to fix that, we have to fix poor and hunger now. And the scale of governing is totally different from any other countries, since we have 1.5 billion, no other government understands how hard it is. Let me give an example in IT maybe you geeks will be easier to understand. To manage a web site with 100 visits per day is totally different than to run a web site with 1 million visits per day, geeks call it scaling, right. Such as Canada, only has 30 million population. 30 million people, we call it piece of cake. Why, beijing has 20 million people, shanghai has 30 million. Moreover, in Chinese new year, Chinese transportation system need to move 90 million people back to their hometown and get it out to cities again.

Re:jack

[cparker15]

I agree that democracy and freedom of speech will be the ultimate final goal where Chinese government pursuits. However, they are not the most important issues in China now. In order to fix that, we have to fix poor and hunger now.

Democracy/freedom and poverty/hunger are not mutually exclusive issues. I'm sure that, with 1.5 billion people, China can manage to pool enough resources to multi-task and focus on more than one issue at a time.

Everything else you said is really just an attempt at justifying a perceived need for authoritarianism. Please understand one small, simple idea: There is never a need for authoritarianism.

Re:jack

[bhagwad]

India has 1.14 billion people - and the area is smaller too. Both have done a decent job so far at reducing slums and poverty [business-standard.com] given their restraints. So how come China needs to censor the Internet and remove freedom of expression when India is more or less ok with it?

Really? That's your argument?

[Anonymous Coward]

So you will blindly follow the Patriot Act laws here because after all, it's "the law"?

Re:jack

[elrous0]

Legal != moral

It's illegal in a lot of nutball Muslim countries for a Muslim to convert to Christianity (by penalty of death). That doesn't mean I can escape criticism when my company starts helping the authorities hunt Christians by saying "Hey, I'm just obeying the law."

Re:jack

[_Sprocket_]

This issue is so simple guys. Every country has their own laws, this applies US too. A Chinese company comes to US to do their business, it has to obey US Laws. If it doesn't do so, the result will be the same as google in China. I hope you guys can take a different perspective to look at this issue.

You'll probably find that many people here understand this. But cultural diversity is not an absolute excuse behavior. We find this behavior despicable whether it is the Chinese government or (as it is occasionally want to do) our own.

I agree that democracy and freedom of speech will be the ultimate final goal where Chinese government pursuits. However, they are not the most important issues in China now. In order to fix that, we have to fix poor and hunger now. And the scale of governing is totally different from any other countries, since we have 1.5 billion, no other government understands how hard it is. Let me give an example in IT maybe you geeks will be easier to understand. To manage a web site with 100 visits per day is totally different than to run a web site with 1 million visits per day, geeks call it scaling, right.

I see that solving issues of poverty and hunger are closely driving the Chinese Government's interaction with Google. If only there were a few less searches for Tienanmen Square or the Falun Gong, China would have these issues tied up. Alas, Google has caused untold poverty with images of anonymous men standing in front of tanks rather than serene city squares. The issues with pornography simply don't have to be commented on as this is a world-wide problem.

Or maybe one has nothing to do with the other. Or, at least... not in the way presented. There might be a point about scaling. Top-heavy, authoritarian systems tend to scale very poorly. And it would seem that Chinese government is a wonderful example of authoritarian bureaucracy at work.

Re:jack

[Zephyr14z]

I suppose these things haven't occurred in a country yet then? There's certainly still poverty and hunger in the western world too. Turns out, even with democracy and free speech, you still need money and food to fix poverty and hunger.

Re:what americans are forgetting

[Thinboy00]

Human rights are universal. If the law says you don't have them, the law is wrong.