Most of those living in the West take for granted that the internet is, by and large, free from censorship and readily accessible to everyone. Not so in many countries. Even if the internet is freely available, there is always the Net Filtering [some of it quite bizarre in its operation] in the background.
A real stoush has now broken out between Google and the Chinese authorities.
In a piece by Antony Loewenstein [the author of the book The Blogging Revolution (MUP)] on the ABC's The Drum / Unleashed he explains what is happening:
"Google has threatened to withdraw entirely from China in protest at the authoritarian regime's oppressive online censorship and continuing attempts by Chinese hackers to gain sensitive information of local human rights workers.
Perhaps most significantly, Google's Chinse search engine, Google.cn, now allows once banned material to be displayed, such as images of the brutal crackdown in Tiananmen Square. A few people even placed flowers outside the company's offices in Beijing as a sign of respect and perhaps admiration for the company's position.
It is a highly unusual move by a multinational with roughly 30 percent market share in an internet market of over 350 million people, the largest in the world. Furthermore, it recognises the increasing pressure placed on the company by Communist officials, including the banning of YouTube, attempts to illegally gain corporate information and persistent efforts by hackers to discover the private details of dissenters on Gmail."
Continue reading here.
A real stoush has now broken out between Google and the Chinese authorities.
In a piece by Antony Loewenstein [the author of the book The Blogging Revolution (MUP)] on the ABC's The Drum / Unleashed he explains what is happening:
"Google has threatened to withdraw entirely from China in protest at the authoritarian regime's oppressive online censorship and continuing attempts by Chinese hackers to gain sensitive information of local human rights workers.
Perhaps most significantly, Google's Chinse search engine, Google.cn, now allows once banned material to be displayed, such as images of the brutal crackdown in Tiananmen Square. A few people even placed flowers outside the company's offices in Beijing as a sign of respect and perhaps admiration for the company's position.
It is a highly unusual move by a multinational with roughly 30 percent market share in an internet market of over 350 million people, the largest in the world. Furthermore, it recognises the increasing pressure placed on the company by Communist officials, including the banning of YouTube, attempts to illegally gain corporate information and persistent efforts by hackers to discover the private details of dissenters on Gmail."
Continue reading here.
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