Comments on: China to Google: No porn, or else

Google confirmed the government rapped its knuckles over auto-suggested salacious search terms, yet still won't confirm China ordered similar measures for Tiananmen.

[mckulty]

"Communist country bans porn" is no big deal.

"Porn ban includes Dachau, Wounded Knee, and ANC"

That's worth a line or two.

=30=

[seizetheday1]

Good for China. My adult son looks at internet porn and it's really stupid...pathetic....
Again, good for China for blocking!

[scoates2482]

If he's an adult then it is none of your business.

[cnnneo]

Ridiculous! You people know nothing about China and Tiananmen Square event while still pretending the world "first class" race to educate the "low-grade". Look what Chinese people have achieved all these years and you people should be ashamed of that, the real hypocrites! Take good care of yourselves and we don't need your salvation!

[scoates2482]

China has achieved a lot and should be proud of it. However, a lot of that achievement has come from the direct support, investment and training by the West - so don't get too carried away in your outrage.

I will also mention the blatant theft of technology and engineering.

"Ridiculous! You people know nothing about China and Tiananmen Square event "

Yes, because free access to information makes us more ignorant.

[menehune9]

you really must own stocks in Walmart.

[S0l0]

You know China is going to fail sooner or later
And when that happens the porn companys wont bail them out!

[scoates2482]

I doubt that this is really about porn or "protecting the children".
It is just a little further a trip down the slippery slope of complete control over free speech and personal privacy and thought.

[edwardqiu123]

What's wrong with you people? "communist country bans porn blah blah blah..." Why does banning porn have to connect with China being a communist country? Do you people think porn should be allowed? Do you think it should be prompted?? China is doing a good thing, so I really don't get why you people are badgering China. What if America does the same thing? Will you still have that attitude? Will you still think it's "wrong"? Why is it that two countries do the same thing, but one is praised, and one is blamed?? What about the American government controling and monitoring the information that is sent/recieved over the internet? Is that giving people privacy and freedom? Is that true democracy? Let's face it, the US calls themselves "democratic", but they aren't any better off than the position China is in.

Not at all.
When America blocks websites its equaly wrong, as they did relateing to cuba on their DNS server.

The fact that China is, much worse, dosnt mean America isnt also bad.

"Do you people think porn should be allowed?"

We think people should be able to look up historic events and educate themselfs about what their country and govement is doing..
This isnt about Porn...do some research their is A LOT of stuff you just cant look up in china....basicaly anything that offends the govement.

Just like America says "we do this to stop terrorists", china says they do this to stop porn, but really, its about other stuff completely.

[menehune9]

"Do you people think porn should be allowed? Do you think it should be prompted?"

Honestly, I think porn should be allowed. What shouldn't be allowed is the capitalization of porn. Its the capitalization of porn that breeds evil deeds. If Chna wants to be anti-porn, they should start physically tracking all those illicit activities originating from within their country. Follow the money trail, then you can stop the malicious porn sites.

"Why is it that two countries do the same thing, but one is praised, and one is blamed?? What about the American government controling and monitoring the information that is sent/recieved over the internet? Is that giving people privacy and freedom? Is that true democracy?"

Good question, ask your senator or representative that. It is our so called elected that are representing our views on how the country should be run. If they aren't representing the majority of the people, then there is definitely an issue. Don't you agree?

[Paul_Christie]

I kinda think its messed up how porography is one of the few recession-proof jobs in America.
And yes, porn IS a job... (sigh).
Whatever keeps America going, I suppose.

[eastjungle]

Tom, I enjoyed reading your stories in the past. but this one about the Google porn suggest is so tangential, and even misleading to some extent.

Two days ago, my parents in China told me over the phone that Google China was doing something real nasty--when you type ?? ?"Son"? in its search box, it prompt suggests ????????? ("Son Mother Inappropriate Relationship") and ?????????? ("Son Mother Having Sex"), etc.; when you type ? ("Country"), it suggests ?????? ("foreign sex videos"). My mom watched the original news report, but couldn't believe it. So she tried on her computer and Google China site behaved exactly like that, and for a lot more other Chinese keywords.

I just tried Google US site, even with safe search turned off, Google aggressively filters keywords. Type "porn", nothing comes up in Google Suggest. Even for medical terms like "*****" or "vagina", there's no auto-complete, or suggest, or even a correction when you misspelled them.

So, apparently Google has done something seriously wrong, or some part of its search algorithm is broken.

I'm also pissed off by Chinese government's censorship. But this time, you are muddling 2 issues.

[jinx101a]

Toxic chemicals in food is apparantly Ok with China, but porn not so much. I mean, they have to have their priorities straight right? ;P

[asdaman1234]

Anyone using google.cn can bypass some of the filters by entering spaces between every character of a search term. Although most results will still be heavily filtered.

For example:
Instead of "Tiananmen Square" (No Quotes)
Try "T i a n a n m e n S q u a r e"

Search results comparison below:
http://images.google.cn/images?hl=zh-CN&q=Tiananmen%20Square
http://images.google.cn/images?hl=zh-CN&sa=1&q=T+i+a+n+a+n+m+e+n++S+q+u+a+r+e

Why not use a proxy to access google.com if you live in china? Or use Tor? Or try one of the many other options to bypass the firewall.

[gdod25]

You people believe freedom is being able to see porn? Wow this country is gone. You have no idea what freedom means. It is self government. Being able to police yourself. That means do whats right without having to be forced or told. An ignorant people are easy to rule over. You think your so cleaver and classless and free but your still Fu-king peasants as far as I can see. Lennon.

[Marco_Y]

Hi, everyone. I'm a person who living in China. We all love liberty, but our government block a lot of truth of our society and the history. Fortunately, we have a lot of good proxy help us to get the truth, we hate the Great Fire Wall which was built by the government. When the government order Google to disable their some important features, more than 90% people in China believe it is absurd, and they figure out that they will support Google and continue using it. Everyone knows the ulterior motives of the order (not porn but truth). Recent years, the government has made a corresponding change on the freedom of speech, we can criticize the government in informality environment, such as internet, family talking.... But the television always play the role of the government's babysitter. Everyone in China knows that, and nobody will trust the opinion which was telling us by TV programs. After suffering long term political lies, the political became an boring topic we didn't care about, the only thing we care about is the commercial development. Some people think that China is still a communism country, yes, you are right, but only about the politics. We are a completely capitalism in the aspect of economy.

[ylhypnosis]

accessibility to internet porn should be a personal choice rather a government act. Commercial activities should be controlled to a certain extend by the government. pure democracy exists nowhere. pure freedom exists nowhere. China has been making great improvements on democracy and freedom. Opening its market to the world in the 80s was one giant leap. improvements deserve to be acknowledged; imperfection shall be noted. YET, MAKING CHANGES TAKES TIME. sudden political change in China would hurt not only China but the entire world in many different ways. we chinese should be proud of what our government has brought us and the world. save your time attacking your motherland, and do within your power to support it and alter it in a better way will be much more helpful to all human kind. for example:1. learn better English for better communication. 2. learn economics before you say we are completely capitalist. 3. help me think of other things that you can do instead of trashing your home country and make a complete fool out of yourself to make China a better country and make the world a better place.

[michaelj72]

what is it about porn that threatens the chinese State so much? that's my big question. what are they so afraid of....and the longeer they try to hold the lid down on that one, the stronger it will be in the end...

i can see how they would be nervous over coverage of the Tiananmen Square massacre (though i never heard much from the US about pushing for a full investigation and expose by the US corporatized media of the mexico city massacre of '68) so there's an odd asymmetry there.....

the chinese gov't seem to really be social control freaks. Google will eventually have to pull out of all that.....

[zelrik]

Well I would guess that sexual references would increase the birth rate, and well it's already crowded there. That might be a stupid reasoning. One could correct me on that one.

[redsurrection]

thats the problem with the hypocritical western government. All things goes and no hold bars in the name of human rights.. not knowing what right and wrong. I find it amusing that an atheistic communist government cares more about their kids and young people that the American and western clowns running the government.. Not to mention the main stream media too which is full of ******** and propaganda.

[jz33040]

The Chinese people in that part of the world as pretty much like robots because their government controls them. Also because of their population which in part causes this. They tend to all act the same. China shouldn't be telling google what they should or shouldn't do. (unless it makes google more money? lol). But most sites have a policy. If you don't like the site, your remedy is not to use that site and it shouldn't be any different for China. it probably goes deeper than this, but still.. ..

[lingo009]

Excuse me? China is going to 'punish' Google if it doesn't comply? LOL! Uhh... I think it's the other way around... After all- China needs Google more than Google needs China. Sadly, Google will probably placate the barbarian dictators. So listen up Google and all the other western business - Do What Is Right! Tell China to respect Human Rights or else you may suffer a backlash soon enough.

[Thomas_Fletcher]

I think that the Chinese people are wise to ban porn.
We in America have dropped our moral values without looking seriously at the consequenses.
What effect is it having on our productivity as a nation?
How many porn addicts are wasting the time of their employers looking at porn rather than making better cars and other products?
Has anyone looked at what it is costing us?

[gidstelios]

It is not about porn but about the freedom users have in the pages they view and consequently in the information they get. There are many ways to access the so-called illegal sites on China. People have their rights to know what their country has done or is doing and they should be really proud if they improved the situation over their Nation. In my opinion, in one way or the other the people will know what their country did over the past decades. It all boils down to the fact that when something is forbidden it usually tends to be more attractive at the same time.

[KCStymie]

Just use Bing. It is Microsoft 's payback for China's software piracy.

[samgmcf]

I, for one, doubt that China's main concern is porn. That is rather a cover for its desire to quell all criticism of its policies, which violate human rights both domestically (crackdown on political and religious dissidents, press censorship, etc.) and internationally (supporting the genocide in Sudan). Shame on Google for facilitating ANY censorship. Once it has crossed this line, for profit, it has opened itself to other demands for censorship by the Chinese government.

[fwder247]

The best way to defeat an opponent is to let that opponent wear itself out. America and the rest of the world keeps going to war, expending resources that we're fighting to obtain. What are we gonna do when half the world's population (China) comes out fighting when we've all worn ourselves out? Bring the troops home, stockpile defense ammo and focus on domestic issues.

You all talk smack about the Chinese govt, they are merely preserving a way of life. Most Chinese are just as conservative as the government, yet in the end they will suffer anyway. China almost introduced its own Internet, cut off from the rest of us, that would have solved all their problems from the start.