It seems that Google has decided to branch out into yet another market, foreign affairs. Google, while great at data transfer, organization, and storage, is not the personification of the definition of diplomacy. Admittedly, I agreed with Google's lifting of search censors. But like Google, I shouldn't be meddling in the relationships of global super powers. At this point, we can use as many political allies on the global scene as we can get. China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has stated that the U.S. highlighting the cyber-attacks on Google "damages U.S.-Sino relationship." What does this mean for the global political climate? And should a .com really have this much pull in the universe?
CNN on China
2 comments:
I believe Google got in way over its head with this one. I understand why they went to China in the first place. They thought they could do some good for the Chinese people even with the censorship the government of China required. Now that they are asking the Chinese government to allow them to have an unfiltered search engine I think Google has asked too much.
As soon as Google knew the Chinese government was using them to locate human rights activists, they should have shut everything down. Nothing is worth endangering the lives of citizens, these are the same citizens Google is trying to give free speech on the Web. I hope Google will make an agreement with China, but I am not optimistic that China will follow the rules of said agreement. In my opinion Google has really overstepped the boundaries. I am not sure what immediate political implications this will have, but it will have some. Perhaps it will spark a global interest instead of a .com effort.
the Chinese have always had a strong views on censorship. I believe Google saw this a new enterprise with a great deal of users but I think perhaps they should learn to cut their losses. China is not going to ease up on their censorship for anyone. Unless Google is willing to "sell their souls" and go against what they seem to stand for and that is freedom of speech than they are going to have to let this one go.
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