Everyone knows that Google is one of the top search engines on the internet and they are a highly respected and established business. Their respect may have gone out the door in China because of what they had done back in 2004. The major search engine decided to give into the Chinese government and Google.cn was censored. Nobody knew that it happened until they decided to use the search engine and tried to search for their daily news. This marks the first time in the history of the internet that a search engine had censored any content. A search engine is supposed to provide its users with the content that they input into the search feature and as of September 2004 this is not what was happening.
One of the main reasons for the cause of the censorship has to do with former leader Zhao Ziyang. Zhao, who passed away on January 15, 2005 was the leader of China from 1980-1987. As a leading reformer who implemented reforms and greatly increased the production of the country, Zhao also fought against corruption. His biggest battle was at Tiananmen Square on May 19, 1989 when he made his most famous speech. He is quoted as saying, “Students, we came too late. We are sorry. You talk about us, criticize us, it is all necessary. The reason that I came here is not to ask you to forgive us. All I want to say is that students are getting very weak, it is the 7th day since you went on hunger strike, you can't continue like this.” The students were protesting against the economic policies that the government currently upheld. Zhao went on to say in his speech “We are old; it doesn’t matter to us anymore.” He was referring the government, Zhao was still a government official at the time of his speech. This ended up being his last public appearance and one day later he was put under house arrest until his death in 2005. The people in China don’t know this story because of the censorship that China is enforcing. They censored everything because they didn’t want a rebellion against the government. They also didn’t want protesters at Zhao’s funeral on January 17, 2005.
There have been a lot of reactions due the fact that the people of China can no longer freely access the internet.
With this powerful information comes means for people to understand different viewpoints and ideas. These ideas and arguments may sway them to alter their opinions and thoughts. In Communist China, these ideas and opinions cannot be publicized. The Chinese constitution states that its citizens have limited rights to privacy:
It is interesting to note that some of the new Internet regulations contradict International Laws signed by the Chinese government. China signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 1998 that states that “Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print…or through any other media of his choice”.
Everyday people in China are suffering from their government. From being wrongly accused to being executed for petty crimes. In a country where you cannot speak your opinions, talk poorly about government officials, speak about Chinese communist failures, or even browse the internet freely. China has kept its citizens in the void. One example is the great firewall of china, which sensors most social media and other sites. This essay will go into some individual stories of the Chinese government's unfair social injustices towards its people.
Deva, Surya. “Corporate Complicity in Internet Censorship in China: Who Cares for the Global Compact or the Global Online Freedom Act?” The George Washington International Law Review. Washington, DC: The George Washington Intl Law Review. 2007. Web. 31 Jan., 2011.
To begin with, Harry Lewis, Randal Picker, and Siva Vaidhyanathan argue that the violation of the Google motto is demonstrated in their agreement to cooperate with the Chinese government in exchange of a larger monetary market (Intelligence2, 2008). They discuss that the Chinese government has allowed Google to enter their country with the condition that they censor much of the material on the Internet. Google, being an American company should have said no and upheld the first amendment of the United States Constitution. This is a reason that has led many people to classify Google as...
The Chinese Government placed internet bans on any reference to the 1989 massacre at Tiananmen Square. The events that caused the government to impose censorship were a death of a political outcast, student protest, military association with the massacre, and with the United States government involvement, the censorship got stricter.
The government in china is very concerned with limiting the freedom of expression for it's citizens in all possible ways. Let's examine first the reason why censorship is such an important aspect for the Chinese government. According to the book “A Short History of China” by Gordon Kerr when the renaissance took place in Europe from the 14th through the 17th century it changed people's view in many different ways because it was “a period of exploration, discovery and advancement in almost every field”(Gordon Kerr 87); it was a rebirth of the ancient traditions. Mean...
...wever, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao prompted a calling for press freedom in 2010. After that, there was a “Decision on Major Issues Concerning Comprehensively Deepening Reforms” made public as a document on November 15th 2013 by the government. It is likely to prompt fairly free market media system. This is a big step towards to free speech in China.
Google is the largest search engine across the globe, which has significantly transformed the use of the Internet as an information source. The influence of Google in Internet use as information source is evident in the fact that by June 2010, it accounted for more than 70 percent of total Internet searches in America. In addition to its success and profitability in the global market, Google is renowned as a highly ethical company as demonstrated in its corporate philosophy features. However, the firm’s behavior during the launch of its China-based search engine in 2006 generated huge skepticism from the United States government and several human rights organizations (Baker & Tang, p.2). Since the launch of Google’s Chinese search engine, the company complied with China’s censorship regulations by deciding to filter out terms that are considered politically sensitive. This decision attracted criticism from political leaders and human rights activists who accused Google of betraying its adopted ethical standards by ignoring the essence of freedom of expression and information access. As a result, Google faced a dilemma involving the clash between law and ethics. In the subsequent years, Google reacted to the dilemma by changing its rhetoric strategies in efforts to respond to the changing needs.
Xu, Beina. "Media Censorship in China." Council on Foreign Relations. Council on Foreign Relations, 12 Feb. 2014. Web. 26 Mar. 2014. .
Censorship allows governments more control of society than they already have, slowly progressing governments utilizing censorship to a dictatorship. Often times, this censorship can lead to immense rebellions. A good example of this is in China, where Google has been censored by a provider called The Great Firewall of China, which censors information that could be viewed as defamatory or insulting to Chinese government and culture. According to the article “Google turns off China censorship warning” as published by BBC News Technology, “Google has had a rocky relationship with the Chinese authorities since January 2010, when the company said it may shut down Chinese operations due to a ‘sophisticated and targeted’ cyber attack. Google said at the time that it was no longer willing to censor the Google search engine”. Many journalists have also taken a look at Egypt, which also utilizes censorship. According to “Egyptian authorities step up censorship” as published by the Committee to Protect Journalists website, the new military-run Egyptian government is censoring news outlets and keep journalists, as well as the Muslim Brotherhood and its affiliates. “Egyptia...
Since the 1990’s, the Chinese government has had systems in place that block, monitor, and filter the Internet inside/outside of China (Guobin 52). The ‘Great Firewall’, very well is the largest internet filte...
Rosenthal, Elisabeth. "China Lists Controls To Restrict the Use Of E-mail and Web." The New York Times, 27 January 2000. Retrieved 26 April 2004.
The Internet is an extremely educational and communicative tool. Everyone can access a tremendous amount of information and connect with people on the other end of the planet; it is capable of doing everything. Nowadays, the society is facing a variety of challenges and controversies which are mostly related to religion, morality, the economic crisis, etc., and the most talked-about issue in today’s world is “Internet censorship”. Although the Internet is very useful, many people are suggesting the idea of censoring the Internet; however, the government should not censor the Internet because a free and open Internet usage has many positive impacts on people’s lives.
Interests: China’s leaders desire to improve their nation’s economy while preserving political stability. They want to censor political discussions to prevent “westernization” of China,