4 ms·

A more accurate title might be "Bing tries full-on censorship..". The author of the post notes: > This isn’t happening anymore (as of January 2), but we’ll kee

by privong 11y ago

A more accurate title might be "Bing tries full-on censorship..". The author of the post notes: > This isn’t happening anymore (as of January 2), but we’ll keep checking to see if any further changes are made. But it's worrying that Bing seems to have enacted censorship (maybe they pushed a change to production too early and rolled it back?). Certainly something to keep an eye on.

deleted 11y ago
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- forgotpwtomain 11y ago
  > But why is it bad that a commercial party wants to respect local laws? How far are you willing to follow this line of argument, should a company help with enforcement Sharia Law, or the North Korean weapons program also? (They conform to local laws!))) Or are you only willing to follow this line of argument when it is deemed sufficiently profitable over the possible cost of PR backlash for a corporation (which is how I suspect they do their calculations).
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
  - sangnoir 11y ago
    > How far are you willing to follow this line of argument, should a company help with enforcement Sharia Law, or the North Korean weapons program also? (They conform to local laws!))) The answer is yes - if the company wishes to do business in Saudi Arabia or North Korea respectively. Morals aside: should Heineken (a Dutch company) sell alcohol to 18 year-old Americans in California because that is legal in the home country? Or should they follow American laws when they are doing business in America? If Heineken finds American laws unconscionable, the best they can do is to not do business in the US. If they want the US as a market - they have to follow the (local) laws. Only in a fascist dystopia do companies get to pick and choose the laws they would rather follow.
- seanmcdirmid 11y ago
  > But why is it bad that a commercial party wants to respect local laws? Let's say for sake of argument that it is not bad. But what are those laws? What does the law say and how do you interpret it? The way China does censorship is very vague: "don't allow anything indecent (by any standard) or that disturbs social harmony (in any way)." Oh, and there is no such thing as safe harbor, you must pro-actively check that user content abides by these vague standards. It is also quite arbitrary, here is an example of a picture that is banned in China as indecent: http://imgur.com/e6HCmXq http://imgur.com/e6HCmXq Why? Because of people were comparing that image to this: https://thenanfang.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/parade-06.jpg https://thenanfang.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/parade-06.... Now how the heck are you supposed to follow that law? USA censorship is more like "child porn is bad, report it at once if you find it." It is an incredibly different form of very clear content restriction. It is not a vague threat hanging over your head all the time.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
    - microcolonel 11y ago
      China's wrong, but maybe China would be better off with no search engine than with one which attempts to bias public opinion toward the party.
  - slavik81 11y ago
    I'm a little sad that the grand-parent comment was deleted. He raised a topic that needed discussion.
  - MVf4l 11y ago
    You don't have to report anything. Of course you can if you want. You may have heard of the Chaoyang Masses? Basically following that law is kinda like following the DMCA, you don't know if you are pirating, but if the copyright owner think you are, they'll send you notices, what you can do next is to argue if the contents are legal or just to delete the contents. Though in China it may cost you a fortune if you want to argue if it's legal. > It is not a vague threat Well, unless there are people associate normal images and child porn, like someone did to Winnie and Xi. But I don't think it's going to happen widely in the U.S. IMHO, if the Chinese government stop pushing so hard, there will be less cases like insulting their leader metaphorically. edit: spellings
- lallysingh 11y ago
  They become complicit, and accomplices of, the local authorities. Cowardly hiding behind the local legal veil is really just avoiding any moral standard.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]

by privong 11y ago

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

forgotpwtomain 11y ago
> But why is it bad that a commercial party wants to respect local laws? How far are you willing to follow this line of argument, should a company help with enforcement Sharia Law, or the North Korean weapons program also? (They conform to local laws!))) Or are you only willing to follow this line of argument when it is deemed sufficiently profitable over the possible cost of PR backlash for a corporation (which is how I suspect they do their calculations).
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- sangnoir 11y ago
  > How far are you willing to follow this line of argument, should a company help with enforcement Sharia Law, or the North Korean weapons program also? (They conform to local laws!))) The answer is yes - if the company wishes to do business in Saudi Arabia or North Korea respectively. Morals aside: should Heineken (a Dutch company) sell alcohol to 18 year-old Americans in California because that is legal in the home country? Or should they follow American laws when they are doing business in America? If Heineken finds American laws unconscionable, the best they can do is to not do business in the US. If they want the US as a market - they have to follow the (local) laws. Only in a fascist dystopia do companies get to pick and choose the laws they would rather follow.
seanmcdirmid 11y ago
> But why is it bad that a commercial party wants to respect local laws? Let's say for sake of argument that it is not bad. But what are those laws? What does the law say and how do you interpret it? The way China does censorship is very vague: "don't allow anything indecent (by any standard) or that disturbs social harmony (in any way)." Oh, and there is no such thing as safe harbor, you must pro-actively check that user content abides by these vague standards. It is also quite arbitrary, here is an example of a picture that is banned in China as indecent: http://imgur.com/e6HCmXq http://imgur.com/e6HCmXq Why? Because of people were comparing that image to this: https://thenanfang.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/parade-06.jpg https://thenanfang.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/parade-06.... Now how the heck are you supposed to follow that law? USA censorship is more like "child porn is bad, report it at once if you find it." It is an incredibly different form of very clear content restriction. It is not a vague threat hanging over your head all the time.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
  - microcolonel 11y ago
    China's wrong, but maybe China would be better off with no search engine than with one which attempts to bias public opinion toward the party.
- slavik81 11y ago
  I'm a little sad that the grand-parent comment was deleted. He raised a topic that needed discussion.
- MVf4l 11y ago
  You don't have to report anything. Of course you can if you want. You may have heard of the Chaoyang Masses? Basically following that law is kinda like following the DMCA, you don't know if you are pirating, but if the copyright owner think you are, they'll send you notices, what you can do next is to argue if the contents are legal or just to delete the contents. Though in China it may cost you a fortune if you want to argue if it's legal. > It is not a vague threat Well, unless there are people associate normal images and child porn, like someone did to Winnie and Xi. But I don't think it's going to happen widely in the U.S. IMHO, if the Chinese government stop pushing so hard, there will be less cases like insulting their leader metaphorically. edit: spellings
lallysingh 11y ago
They become complicit, and accomplices of, the local authorities. Cowardly hiding behind the local legal veil is really just avoiding any moral standard.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]