censorship

Google censors 'Lolita,' but not 'bestiality'

It seems like only yesterday that news surfaced that naughty words were being replaced by hash marks on Android phones.

Should you have missed this purely puritan entertainment, words such as the very common one beginning with an "f" were being censored by the built-in voice-to-text feature found on Google's mobile operating system. Even the latter half of "BS" became "####".

This appears, however, not to have been the half of it. CNET's readers are nothing if not disturbingly intelligent. And I am particularly grateful to Zechariah-Aloysius Hillyard from Boston who put his … Read more

Chinese human rights Web sites suffer attacks

The sites of Chinese Human Rights Defenders and four related groups were targeted by cyberattacks over the weekend, the organization said Monday.

A distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack paralyzed the Chinese Human Rights Defenders site for about 16 hours on Saturday and Sunday, the organization said. Also attacked were Civil Rights and Livelihood Watch, Independent Chinese Pen Center, New Century News, and Canyu, the group said.

"Chinese government is the most likely suspect for these attacks," the organization said, though it wasn't able to locate the source and didn't share specific evidence beyond saying such … Read more

China denies involvement in Google cyberattacks

After warning of strained U.S.-China relations, China's government has issued statements denying any state involvement in the cyberattacks on Google and defending its online censorship.

The statements, issued Monday Beijing time and carried on the state news agency Xinhua, come nearly two weeks after Google threatened to pull out of the country after finding that e-mail accounts belonging to human rights activists had been compromised and separately deciding it was no longer interested in self-censoring search results.

Any "accusation that the Chinese government participated in [any] cyberattack, either in an explicit or inexplicit way, is groundless … Read more

Google's challenge in China

A blunt declaration by Google on censorship and surveillance underscores the troubled history--and uncertain future--for Internet companies doing business in China.

Google still thinks it can change China By saying it no longer wants to offer censored search results in China, Google hopes it could change the way the country enforces censorship laws, according to its CEO. (Posted in Relevant Results by Tom Krazit) January 29, 2010 11:30 AM PST

China denies involvement in Google cyberattacks China's government issues a statement denying any state involvement in the cyberattacks on the search giant and some 30 other companies. (Posted … Read more

Week in review: Challenging China

The Obama administration wants companies doing business overseas to step to the plate in the fight against governments that repress access to the Internet.

A little more than a week after Google's blunt declaration about Chinese censorship and illegal electronic intrusions, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton unveiled a new U.S. policy that essentially dared U.S. companies to follow Google's lead and put an end to their complicit censorship of Internet content.

Clinton stopped short of actually proposing regulations, or sanctions, on Internet companies that comply with censorship laws. But her tone was clear: it's … Read more

China warns U.S. over Web censorship stance

A day after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton formally denounced Internet censorship, China warned that the new U.S. stance could hurt relations between the two countries.

"The U.S. has criticized China's policies to administer the Internet and insinuated that China restricts Internet freedom...This runs contrary to the facts and is harmful to China-U.S. relations," a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said in a statement quoted by Reuters, the BBC, and others. (Here is a Google translation of the statement.)

Clinton spoke Thursday, about a week after Google declared it no longer would censor search results … Read more

Blogs, YouTube prompt campaign finance ruling

The U.S. Supreme Court's sweeping ruling on Thursday that invalidated large chunks of campaign finance law arose in part from an unlikely source: the emergence of Facebook, YouTube, and blogs, and the decline of traditional media outlets.

A 5-4 majority concluded that technological changes have chipped away at the justification for a law that allows individuals to create a blog with opinions about a political candidate--but threatens the ACLU, the National Rifle Association, a labor union, or a corporation with felony charges if they do the same.

The now-invalidated law "would seem to ban a blog post … Read more

Google postpones phone launches in China

Google's recent turmoil in China has prompted the company to halt the launch of two Android smartphones in the Chinese market.

The company told Dow Jones Newswire on Tuesday that it has indefinitely postponed the Chinese debut of two mobile phones manufactured by Samsung and Motorola. The phones, which were to be sold by provider China Unicom, were initially set to hit China on Wednesday.

An unnamed source told Dow Jones that Google felt it would be "irresponsible" to unveil the phones now, in light of the company's current situation in China. No details were given … Read more

Dynasty denied, Google rethinks China

It once hoped to change China with its search engine, but Google may wind up effecting more change by closing it down.

Perhaps the most repeated, misunderstood, and beloved three words to ever be associated with Google are these: "don't be evil." Those words, highlighted in the company's initial public offering in 2004, underscored how differently Google wants to be thought of compared with the average corporation.

On Tuesday, it put that philosophy into decisive action, with a bold statement that it would cease censoring search results in China--and an even bolder declaration that unless … Read more