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Yeah this article's reasoning is some next level BS. Of course Google will bend it's western norms and policies to whatever the Chinese demand. Even more so aft

by mavdi 8y ago

Yeah this article's reasoning is some next level BS. Of course Google will bend it's western norms and policies to whatever the Chinese demand. Even more so after entering China, they wouldn't simply decide not to comply and pack their bags writing off billions in investment.

pas 8y ago
They already did so once, which is not something other tech companies are able to say. I don't have very high hopes of Google somehow breaking Chinese censorship, but simply writing off their effort seems unfair.
- ardy42 8y ago
  > but simply writing off their effort seems unfair. Their efforts seem obviously futile, and open up the risk that the Chinese government will use it's new leverage over them to get them to to bad things. For instance, Yahoo once handed over the emails of two Chinese pro-democracy journalists [1], resulting in them getting 10 year prison sentences in China. Once Google is getting revenue from China, it will be a lot harder for them to say no such demands, especially ones they can comply with in secret. [1] https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=3862513&page=1 https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=3862513&page=1
- throwaway820189 8y ago
  I remember another poster saying they did not completely leave. They still had offices in China that focused on Adwords and other businesses in China, just not search. Google announced they were leaving not because of censorship, but due to Gmail hacking. What I wonder is if China has a similar law like the US that let's them issue "National Security Letters" with secret gag orders. If they did, then they shouldn't have needed to hack Gmail in the first place.
- zelon88 8y ago
  What makes you so convinced that breaking Chinese censorship is in Google's best interest? What makes you convinced that they have any responsibility to do any amount of good to anyone? Google stands to gain a monopoly in the largest market on Earth by signing a deal with China. They stand to lose the largest market on Earth with no chance of ever competing in it if they stab China in the back. They will do nothing to "break" censorship. Doing no evil isn't even in their mission statement anymore, so starting a civil war over free speech certainly isn't on their radar. Google wants market share. They want more GBs of personal data that they can use to profile the human race and target ads to the right people. The only concern about well-being in any of this is Google being concerned that their own employees will turn this into a media fiasco, which it slowly is becoming.

by mavdi 8y ago

pas 8y ago

They already did so once, which is not something other tech companies are able to say. I don't have very high hopes of Google somehow breaking Chinese censorship, but simply writing off their effort seems unfair.

ardy42 8y ago
> but simply writing off their effort seems unfair. Their efforts seem obviously futile, and open up the risk that the Chinese government will use it's new leverage over them to get them to to bad things. For instance, Yahoo once handed over the emails of two Chinese pro-democracy journalists [1], resulting in them getting 10 year prison sentences in China. Once Google is getting revenue from China, it will be a lot harder for them to say no such demands, especially ones they can comply with in secret. [1] https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=3862513&page=1 https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=3862513&page=1
throwaway820189 8y ago
I remember another poster saying they did not completely leave. They still had offices in China that focused on Adwords and other businesses in China, just not search. Google announced they were leaving not because of censorship, but due to Gmail hacking. What I wonder is if China has a similar law like the US that let's them issue "National Security Letters" with secret gag orders. If they did, then they shouldn't have needed to hack Gmail in the first place.
zelon88 8y ago
What makes you so convinced that breaking Chinese censorship is in Google's best interest? What makes you convinced that they have any responsibility to do any amount of good to anyone? Google stands to gain a monopoly in the largest market on Earth by signing a deal with China. They stand to lose the largest market on Earth with no chance of ever competing in it if they stab China in the back. They will do nothing to "break" censorship. Doing no evil isn't even in their mission statement anymore, so starting a civil war over free speech certainly isn't on their radar. Google wants market share. They want more GBs of personal data that they can use to profile the human race and target ads to the right people. The only concern about well-being in any of this is Google being concerned that their own employees will turn this into a media fiasco, which it slowly is becoming.