Orders must be obeyed
At the start of this year, Google publicly contemplated stopping its censorship of google.cn in response to a cyber attack originating in China, targeting the Gmail accounts of some Chinese civil-rights activists.
Today, reports the beeb, minister of industry and IT Li Yizhong warned Google of the consequences of not censoring google.cn. "I hope that Google will abide and respect the Chinese government's laws and regulations," he said. "But, if you betray Chinese laws and regulations... it means that you are unfriendly, irresponsible, and you will have to pay the consequences."
"We need to preserve our nation's interest, our people's interest, we cannot be relaxed with any information that will cause harm to the stability of our society, to our system, and to the health of our under-age young people," he continued, warming to his Orwellian theme. "So, of course, what needs to be shut down will be shut down, what needs to be blocked will be blocked."
And wsj.com is reporting that Google is contemplating some kind of compromise with the Chinese, according to its ubiquitous person close to the matter. Google hasn't stopped censoring its search results in China yet, but the report reckons it might within weeks.
Google is stuck in a difficult position here. If it stops censoring entirely, the Chinese government will boot it out, however, it's becoming increasingly difficult to justify complying with Chinese censorship demands on ethical grounds.
