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These countries, Iran and China probably knew that Facebook is a huge spying machine and kept their citizens safe.

by antocv 13y ago

kshatrea 13y ago
<snark> More like, they didn't want any competition with the government. </snark>
- wisty 13y ago
  Ma Huateng (Tencent's CEO, aka the boss of QQ) isn't the government. He's just married to the daughter of a very prominent party member. But ... I can't remember who. (It's either Wen, or Hu - one of the former big two). And it's not on the front page of Google (black hat SEO?).
  - jckt 13y ago
    I think by competition he/she meant spying and not social media?
songco 13y ago
No, they don't want their citizens to use any web site support user-generated content and not under "control", especially some big ones: twitter, facebook, wordpress, blogspot, and google(you can access google service, but you will meet connection reset frequently)....
- antocv 13y ago
  How often do you use non-USA, non-NATO services? Can you name 1 that has as influence in your life as Twitter, Facebook, Google or Apple? Why? Maybe its because USA/Western people dont have trust in companies from Brazil, Russia China? Its not because they dont exist, Orkut was ahead of its time, vkontakte has all that facebook has and pirated music on top of it, maybe its just that you are steered into USA controlled "content" just like Iran, Chinese citizens are steered towards baidu or whatever.
MichaelTieso 13y ago
Makes no sense considering the government itself spies on their citizens. At least with QQ, the government can control its content and see what everyone is talking about.
charlesju 13y ago
I don't think that Chinese officials necessarily want to block FB just because of privacy issues. I believe what they want is three-fold: 1. By blocking big internet companies in the USA it gives homegrown companies an opportunity to rise to spur economic growth and create jobs. 2. Having homegrown solutions that compete directly with US companies is good for the Chinese morale and public image of the government. Showing that they too are capable of creating and running large internet companies that will drive economic growth in the next century. 3. In case of emergency China entities are a lot easier to control the outflow of information. Whereas I feel getting FB or Google to block something might be more of a nuisance. However, while this is the most popular reason why the government has blocked FB and Google (it's fun to vilify governments in general), I believe that in case of emergency they would just shut these sites down, so I believe explanations 1 and 2 are ultimately the bigger impact in this decision.
bcaulf 13y ago
It's remarkable that this comment would have been seen as trolling a month ago and today it is perfectly realistic.

These countries, Iran and China probably knew that Facebook is a huge spying machine and kept their citizens safe.

by antocv 13y ago

These countries, Iran and China probably knew that Facebook is a huge spying machine and kept their citizens safe.

kshatrea 13y ago

<snark> More like, they didn't want any competition with the government. </snark>

wisty 13y ago
Ma Huateng (Tencent's CEO, aka the boss of QQ) isn't the government. He's just married to the daughter of a very prominent party member. But ... I can't remember who. (It's either Wen, or Hu - one of the former big two). And it's not on the front page of Google (black hat SEO?).
- jckt 13y ago
  I think by competition he/she meant spying and not social media?

songco 13y ago

No, they don't want their citizens to use any web site support user-generated content and not under "control", especially some big ones: twitter, facebook, wordpress, blogspot, and google(you can access google service, but you will meet connection reset frequently)....

antocv 13y ago
How often do you use non-USA, non-NATO services? Can you name 1 that has as influence in your life as Twitter, Facebook, Google or Apple? Why? Maybe its because USA/Western people dont have trust in companies from Brazil, Russia China? Its not because they dont exist, Orkut was ahead of its time, vkontakte has all that facebook has and pirated music on top of it, maybe its just that you are steered into USA controlled "content" just like Iran, Chinese citizens are steered towards baidu or whatever.

MichaelTieso 13y ago

Makes no sense considering the government itself spies on their citizens. At least with QQ, the government can control its content and see what everyone is talking about.

charlesju 13y ago

I don't think that Chinese officials necessarily want to block FB just because of privacy issues. I believe what they want is three-fold: 1. By blocking big internet companies in the USA it gives homegrown companies an opportunity to rise to spur economic growth and create jobs. 2. Having homegrown solutions that compete directly with US companies is good for the Chinese morale and public image of the government. Showing that they too are capable of creating and running large internet companies that will drive economic growth in the next century. 3. In case of emergency China entities are a lot easier to control the outflow of information. Whereas I feel getting FB or Google to block something might be more of a nuisance. However, while this is the most popular reason why the government has blocked FB and Google (it's fun to vilify governments in general), I believe that in case of emergency they would just shut these sites down, so I believe explanations 1 and 2 are ultimately the bigger impact in this decision.

bcaulf 13y ago

It's remarkable that this comment would have been seen as trolling a month ago and today it is perfectly realistic.