YouTube, Google News Censored in China
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Written By Sepideh Saremi | March 17, 2008 | Share This
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The Chinese government has blocked YouTube and Google News in the wake of pro-Tibet protests. China’s the most recent in a long string of countries that have blocked YouTube, but TechCrunch’s Erick Schonfeld notes that Google is in a tough spot when it comes to doing business in China. If the company removes the videos that China doesn’t want seen, it becomes complicit in the country’s censorship. If it doesn’t, Google loses its business in China. Schonfeld writes:
I am speculating here—there is no indication that Google has been asked to remove information about Tibet or that it would do so. But if it were to do so, then it would become complicit in China’s censorship. That might have to be the price it has to pay to give the Chinese access to all the other information on YouTube and Google News. The alternative might be a permanent ban.
Which option is the lesser evil for a company that has pledged itself to do none whatsoever?
Schonfeld brings up a really good point, one that Google CEO Eric Schmidt has spoken to in the past, which is the role of Google when it comes to government. In fact, Schmidt has said Google made a compromises with organic search in China, leaving out censored results but telling users it has done so. At the Personal Democracy Forum last year, Schmidt spoke about Google’s role in China. From our post:
Schmidt said that the company [Google] deals with issues of government pressure on a case-by-case basis. The cost of censorship, he said, is often an even bigger problem for governments than the censored issue itself. In Bahrain, for example, the government blocked Google Earth because Bahrainis could see how much land was held by the royal family. But in doing so, the Bahraini Government undermined their authority on the national land issue.
On the topic of censorship, Schmit discussed Google’s experiences with the “great firewall” of China. Google’s compromise on censorship is to omit censored search results, but tell the user that there are results being censored. Schmidt argued that this transparency prompts the user to find the information via alternative means (namely, getting around that firewall).
It seems that, at least technologically speaking, Google could very well do the same thing with YouTube, blocking content in China that doesn’t suit the government and telling people it’s blocking it. But it is certainly a slippery slope for the company, and it is not in keeping with their “Don’t Be Evil” mantra.
Topics: Google, International, Online Video |