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Regarding blackmail I suppose I would say that China already has search engines, which seem to have been able to provide a consistent experience for many years.
by beaner 8y ago
Regarding blackmail I suppose I would say that China already has search engines, which seem to have been able to provide a consistent experience for many years. I would imagine that if there were instances of them being blackmailed, we would have seen the results as drastic product changes or inconsistent experiences.
Since Google does not seem to be aspiring to provide a service that goes beyond that local competition in any profound ways, it seems hard to see why or what they would be blackmailed for, that others wouldn't.
Google has also tried to enter China once and willingly withdrew when it would not cooperate, so they have displayed historically a willingness to exit when the situation is something they cannot agree with.
For these reasons it seems unlikely that a blackmail situation would occur, or, if it did, what it would be for or what it would accomplish.
- fauigerzigerk 8y agoChinese search enginges don't have to be blackmailed by the regime as they can simply be orderd to comply. Foreign companies can be blackmailed once their China related business is a large enough chunk of overall revenue and profits. Your argument about Google's historical willingness to exit is strangely circular, because that is exactly the stance they are now giving up on in spite of the fact that censorship has since gotten worse.
- beaner 8y agoRegarding them exiting, I don't really see what's circular about that if they simply changed their minds about how they perceive the morality of censored results inside if China. It just means they have a line, and redrew it, perhaps depending on new considerations or a new moral perspective. Dunno.
- SyneRyder 8y agoI'm not sure if this is what constitutes blackmail, but China demanded that all the world's airlines rename Taiwan to "Taiwan China" on their global websites, or they would ban the airlines from Chinese airspace: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-04/qantas-to-refer-to-taiwan-as-territory-following-chinese-demands/9833606 http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-04/qantas-to-refer-to-tai... Staying out of the Chinese market could make Google less susceptible to the kind of censorship request that is also effective outside of China, like the airlines were forced to comply with.