Yesterday Google put an end to the censorship of its own search engine in China by sending all the users back to a new version of the platform based in Hong Kong.
The reason why Google did so is because the Internet in China is actually more like a huge Intranet. Chinese people's access to the web represents a really limited offer. The giant of search engine couldn't be legal in the country without obeying the communist government's law, which include withholding information.
Chinese rules don't apply to Hong Kong which benefits a special status. Google is then getting round the repressive regime by launching a new version of its website from there. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean Chinese people will be able to have a wider access to the Internet. The government has installed a system forbidding the search of certain words. The only difference is that Google is no longer involved in it.
Although it won't stop censorship in China, I think the company made an honourable decision. Providing a censored version of Google will be like standing for the a government that is preventing people from informing themselves. Beyond the fact that this is a violation of a fundamental right, it would be completely antinomic for Google to be associated to such facts.
Speaking of universal right, a BBC World service study recently revealed that almost four in five people around the world believe that access to the internet is a fundamental right. I think it's not by chance that dictatorships have always wanted to retrain information. The less people know, the easier it is to fool them. Information is power. That is why social media are dangerous for dictatorship, it gives people a voice they never had. This is exactly what happened during the rebellion in Iran last year, Twitter and Youtube were the only platforms where people could testify.
Though it is not always used the right way, Internet is definitely a inelinable right to me.
What's your opinion on that?
The reason why Google did so is because the Internet in China is actually more like a huge Intranet. Chinese people's access to the web represents a really limited offer. The giant of search engine couldn't be legal in the country without obeying the communist government's law, which include withholding information.
Chinese rules don't apply to Hong Kong which benefits a special status. Google is then getting round the repressive regime by launching a new version of its website from there. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean Chinese people will be able to have a wider access to the Internet. The government has installed a system forbidding the search of certain words. The only difference is that Google is no longer involved in it.
Although it won't stop censorship in China, I think the company made an honourable decision. Providing a censored version of Google will be like standing for the a government that is preventing people from informing themselves. Beyond the fact that this is a violation of a fundamental right, it would be completely antinomic for Google to be associated to such facts.
Speaking of universal right, a BBC World service study recently revealed that almost four in five people around the world believe that access to the internet is a fundamental right. I think it's not by chance that dictatorships have always wanted to retrain information. The less people know, the easier it is to fool them. Information is power. That is why social media are dangerous for dictatorship, it gives people a voice they never had. This is exactly what happened during the rebellion in Iran last year, Twitter and Youtube were the only platforms where people could testify.
Though it is not always used the right way, Internet is definitely a inelinable right to me.
What's your opinion on that?
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