Re: Well done, doofus
"Google has problems ramming their search engine down the throat of everyone in China, because the competition there is actually worth something, and happen to know how to work WITH the government instead of following the all "American way" of trying to bully a sovereign nation into following US law instead of its own."
Not bloody likely. In fact, what Chinese gov't department are you with? Because this "politicization" smear is exactly what the state controlled media has been reporting all week.
But the net in China is politicized already. You can only put stuff on the Internet that the gov't allows. Just like all newspapers and TV stations are fully or partially owned by the gov't. And always fully controlled. Include what stories to run. If anything, Google is arguing for DE-politicization, where the gov't doesn't dictate every aspect of acceptable content.
And this "Google failing is the real reason", excuse is pretty thin too. Google's properties were huge in China. But China has been blocking so much lately. Youtube. Facebook. Filckr. A friend iin China was trying to post some pictures of her holiday. No major photo sharing sites work anymore. There is huge underground feeling in China, that the gov't has trashed the Internet. And this was before Google moved out. I can only imagine how the citizens are grumbling now.
The fact is, Google saw the writing on the wall. Even before the "hack" attempts began, Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter were pretty much continuously blocked. China was worried about issues during the Tibetan New Year. And then Youtube, which is a Google property got blocked. It is pretty clear that anything useful or interesting was going to get blocked. Unless you want to watch amateur Japanese "sharking" videos, the Internet in China is a wasteland.
There just isn't a business for Internet company's in China. Regardless of what you think of Twitter, no one can deny its impact. Can Twitter exist in China? Flatly, no. You can't have people instantly sending unfiltered messages from their phone to a public webpage. That is a broadcast. That is not allowed. That means the company can't exist in China. Yes, Baidu and QQ do alright, but the services they are offer are stilted and crude in comparison to what you get here. And mostly inaccessible to non Chinese readers too. But they are also suspected of breaking various Internet laws on porn and illegal music, quite extensively, but nothing that criticizes the gov't of course. B the authorities look the other way, because various other officials also own portions of these companies. See how it works?
The Internet is China is so ridiculous. I'm not sure why even bother. The Beijing city officials decided to limit dog licenses. Ok, fine. No problem. But a debate began on various bulletin boards. That lasted several days. Then the city officials sent a broadcast alert to all the bulletin operators to close all threads about dog licenses. Complying with the law is one thing. But the "law" changes with the whims of the leaders. And even low level city leaders can order takedowns of anything they want for any reason.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
