China's Spin On Regulating Search Engines

from the explain-that-again... dept

Here's an article from China Daily explaining the Chinese government's official reasons why they're regulating search engines in the country. I'm not sure it makes any sense. Most people assume the real reason is that they're trying to prevent people from getting information the government doesn't approve. However, the government's explanation is that they just want to make sure the search engines "meet basic technical standards". You see, instead of trying to hide information, they're concerned that the search results won't be good enough - or worse, not consistent. They even say that the fact that different search engines use different methods is an "inconvenience" for users. Isn't that nice of the government? Then, they go on to suggest that "in developed countries, website search services can only be provided by qualified companies that are approved by Internet management authorities." Exactly which developed countries are they talking about?