Internet Companies Apologize To China For Being Too Good
from the in-the-future,-we'll-miss-more-stuff dept
We noted that the Chinese government had called out a bunch of search engines for allowing access to porn recently, and I find it amusing to see that pretty much all of the search engines called out have issued apologies. What I'm wondering is exactly what are they apologizing for? The fact that other people put pornography online? The fact that they're too good as search engines and are able to find that content?Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: censorship, china, great firewall, search engines
Companies: baidu, google
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really - who do they think they are ?
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Re: really - who do they think they are ?
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Re: really - who do they think they are ?
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Re: Re: really - who do they think they are ?
Regarding Iraq, maybe after the tally exceeds Saddam's count.
Have the Chinese government apologized for Tibet?
This thread is about censorship and free speech in China not your ethnocentric beliefs of cultural superiority.
Regarding Chinese purchase of GM: I find it interesting that many companies in China are propped up by American companies and investments. Have a look some time to see who is holding the bonds on a good number of the Shanghai skyline. So you would have GM purchased by a Chinese company, which is in part owned by an American company. Its like someone buying them self.
BTW, I'm Chinese(born), I live in the US(citizen) and do business primarily with China. There are reasons we (Chinese) and others come to the US, it is a better place to live, period.
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Re: Re: Re: really - who do they think they are ?
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Re: Re: Re: Re: really - who do they think they are ?
BRAVO! Way too many people are so fixated on being different that they refuse to integrate. "My great-grandparents were Irish" is more accurate and more appropriate than "I am Irish-American". This works for any nationality...
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Maybe
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Re: Maybe
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Re: Maybe
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Re: Re: Maybe
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Apologize to China?
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Re:
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Re: Re:
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Re: Re: "The days of white oppression is over."
Are you saying that oppression is over, or that from now on our oppressors won't be white?
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Apology to China
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I think western governments are too business oriented to spoil our government.
The biggest weapon of our government is the population of our people and the traditional frugalness and diligence of this huge population.
The world should have a better strategy to integrate China to the world.
Say No to our government.This government needs to be pressed often to keep track on better behavior on individual human rights.
But never say No to our people, as we are 1 fifth of the citizens of this earth, and i believe in that we are all created equal no matter of our race and nation.
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Re:
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Protection of human rights
Do you mean watching and spreading pornography is your inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? LOL...
I want my kids' human rights protected, and I don't want young kids' mind being tainted by those pornographic materials from Internet search engine, Period.
Pronography is even worse than illegal drugs in every modern society.
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Re: Protection of human rights
Please tell us all how porn is bad for society without referring to your deity of choice and "his" holy book. I'd like some real numbers and not just conjecture.
While you're at it, care to explain how drugs are bad for our society other than the fact that people get arrested and thrown in jail for a victimless crime? If a person uses almost any drug responsibly, you will find there are no ill effects for society.
The Dutch just put a report out that showed that The Netherlands has less than a 6% usage of marijuana among their teenagers and young adults compared to 16% or more in countries where marijuana is illegal.
Sorry, if you don't want porn then join the Amish cause I'd rather my children watch people having sex than violence.
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Re: Protection of human rights
PS I suppose you have no problem with your kids watching thousands of simulated deaths in a war movie as long as it's the good guys(Americans) vs the bad guys(everyone else)?
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Re: Protection of human rights
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RE: Protection of Human Rights
Pronography is even worse than illegal drugs in every modern society."
Howard, you ignorant slut.
Then be with your children when they use the Internet, period. Any method of filtering, blockage, sifting, sorting and suppression known will in time be bypassed, spoofed or otherwise defeated by unsupervised agile minds with a desire to know and the knowledge it is there. This is healthy, this is the drive that let there be 9 billion precious miracles run around on this tired old rock.
Personally, I have yet to see someone break into someone's home for money for naked people, I have never in my time as a EMT picked up a dead body with a bondage magazine stuck in anything.
Let's hammer the 'ol nails one more time. There is no Google Pornography Studio, there is no Yahoo! film lab. The search engines do not provide the 'smut' and they do not provide the money for it. I have tried to pound this into the head of every customer I have ever had for computer services. There is no magic filter. There is no perfect antivirus. There is no fixitall program. You want perfect protection for your children on this, be with them. You wouldn't trust a robot to drive them to school (yet), why are you expecting one on the net?
They only perfect protection can come from within the child. Talk to your child about pornography, tell them why you feel it is wrong-have facts ready, not just 'cause God says', this is called instilling values in your children. This is their protection. This is their only real protection.
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Re: RE: Protection of Human Rights
But, I'm wondering, why can't our law-makers or regulators do a little more, do something right, to make the unregulated Internet environment a little better and cleaner for our civil society? Why our government have to keep a blind eye on these pronography? To protect s.b.'s business ? Or to showcase we are in such a liberal democracy that even pronography and voilence are open and freely available everywhere from the web sites?
Yes we pay tax for public security service, for protection from physical abuse, so what? Clearly We are not immune and not well protected from mental abuse from all kinds of media. So the question here is, "Why we can not pay tax for protection from mental abuses (pronography from the Internet)?"
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Re: Re: RE: Protection of Human Rights
For the same reason the government can't fine people for putting the words "shit" and "fuck" on the internet. There's this annoying thing the founding fathers put into the constitution called the first amendment.
Mind you, the free speech it outlines are being critical rightly does have its restrictions - child pornography isn't and never was considered free speech.
If you consider pornography on the internet - which you have a perfect right to not look at - to be mental abuse, what else would you like to block?
Sorry, but it's not up to the rest of the world to censor itself for your level of comfort.
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Re: Re: Re: RE: Protection of Human Rights
What makes child pornography exempt is that the American People as a near unanimous decision has decided that it is better to protect our children from this type of exploitation until they have reach an arbitrary age that they can make their own informed decisions.
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As for Howard, if you were a good parent your children would grow up educated about sex, but instead you probably feel that you don't need to have that talk with them until they are 17 and almost ready to start a life on their own.
Kids need to be taught about sex young, and young is way younger than you think. If you are open, talk with your kids and teach your kids, they will grow up to think of porn as just another picture on the INTERNET. They won't turn into the addict that I am sure you are.
Kids seek out porn or any other material because it's natural to be curious, and if you take the time to teach them about these topics then they will find other more constructive things to seek out. Take the stigma away from the item and they won't be drawn to it.
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Re: Re: RE: Protection of Human Rights
Are you suggesting a "War on Porn" ?
Do you really think that would work out better than the war on drugs, war on terror, war on poverty ?
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Re: Re: Re: RE: Protection of Human Rights
Don't listen to him, Howard.
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Re: Re: RE: Protection of Human Rights
Because it is not their job to do that. If you do not want to take the responsibility to raise your kids, do not have kids.
As an adult, I have the right to view things on the internet that maybe I do not want my children to view, not just pornography also gory car wreck images and things of that nature. To prevent them from viewing these things I talk with them and monitor what they are doing on the computer.
If your morals are such that you do not want to even acknowledge pornography, then do not acknowledge it. It is very simple.
When you expect the government to take care of everything for you, you are one of the sheeple who is incapable of thinking for themselves.
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Re: Re: RE: Protection of Human Rights
What is obscene to one is not to another, if you don't like, don't look at it, change the channel. Have a nice day.
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Re: Re: RE: Protection of Human Rights
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Sorry for what?
Get over it!
sincerely,
The U.S.
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Hey Howard
Hey Woon,
"The days of white oppression is over." Time AGAIN for yellow oppression? Every race color and creed has oppressed another and their own at some point. I'm not touching the Iraqi or Vietnamese issues except to say that the Vietnamese that I know are glad they got out. Ok, maybe I will. The Iraq and Vietnam campaigns are examples of why I wish America would start pulling it's support from abroad. War for oil? Saving the Turncoat French from getting their asses kicked AGAIN? "F" that!
Ok those are my rants over comments, on to the topic. China's repression of desires is going to cause outrage by the citizens and eventual perversion of desires. I cite the things I have seen in porn shops in Tokyo as support for my argument. Japanese society is so rigid that when they let their hair down - watch out! The search engine companies are doing what smart businesses do. "I'm so sorry, I'll get that corrected immediately and credit your account 10% off this order." People are still going to find the porn.
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Hey Cipher
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Ken & Izico got it right
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Re: Ken & Izico got it right
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Two points
I think these companies are being "men": they're apologizing... no one knows what they're actually apologizing for, but they're apologizing. After all, "you know what you did wrong and I shouldn't have to tell you".
Second, there can't be any pornography filters until someone comes up with a definitive definition for "pornography". Sure, we can agree on the hardcore X-rated stuff, but what about Playboy? Is 18th century artwork, which happens to show nude women "pornographic"? To some people, any nudity is pornographic.
So how do you filter this? Do you tell all search engines not to return any searches from the world's museums?
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Re: Two points
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I am sick and tired of governments trying to tell people what they can do and what they can't.
It's not like it was kiddie porn or snuff videos.
As long as there was no harm done to anyone, who the fsck cares?
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While You're At IT...
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Wait, who is apologizing to whom for what?
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WOW
Jesus Christ...
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Re: WOW
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Re: WOW
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Re: Re: WOW
Using foul language doesn't make you unintelligent. It only makes you seem so to people who are overly sensitive to such language. Get your head out of your ass and breathe a little, Monty.
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Re: Re: Re: WOW
I'm willing to bet that his communications skills are such that it was his only choice.
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Just Shut Up!
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Pot meet Kettle!
If they paid more attention to what is spewing across the world from their own provinces half the Porn locatable on search engines would vanish overnight! Every time my Firewall pounces on an attempted Hack of my computer I have bets with myself that it is Chinese in origin. On follow-up I'm almost never wrong! If we multiply my experiences by the rest of the internet users, then .. sorry .. the Chinese government needs to stop being such a pathetic HYPOCRITE and clean up its own act on line, AND apologize to the rest of the world!!
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to the guy from china
if that's the way you all think were better off without you the WORLD does not need to cater to one country's needs innovate or die out. simple logic.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7783640.stm
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This could have dastardly concequences
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Re: This could have dastardly concequences
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China
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Hi.
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China
When it's China in the mix, common sense is out the window, especially if you're talking Chinese Politicians!
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