Google's Censorship on China's Results

[kyleirwin]

I'm sure this as been discussed all over the place, I originally herd about it on Jim Boykin's blog. Most know that Google has bowed to the Chinese government by censoring out whatever the Chinese government does not what it's citizens to see in order to be able to be viewed via Chinese ISPs. While it can just be viewed as a business move, and easily accepted... there is one thing that stuck out for me that really made me think twice.

Search Google Images for "tiananmen" in the US, and get this...
http://images.google.com/images?q=tiananmen
... exactly what just about everybody thinks of when they hear the location mentioned.

Now search for the same word on Google Images in China and get this...
http://images.google.cn/images?q=tiananmen
... hrm, that's odd, not one image of what Tiananmen Square is famous for.

It's pretty hard to swallow that the company with the motto of "don't be evil" would filter out the truth of a government slaughtering thousands of it's own young citizens.

 

[a.titus1]

That's... interesting. I had heard of how google was taking a lot of heat for that, but this is the first time Ive actually seen the results.

Do no evil I suppose only takes you so far. Profits can take you further. In a way I can't blame them - to stay competative with microsoft and yahoo they have to go worldwide. But this kind of thing does violate some of their basic principles.

In fairness I will say I am impressed with how well google has stuck to its guns in most things, especially with the amount of growth theyve undergone. This is a rather glaring mark against them though.