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Google Plans to Launch Censored Search Engine in China, Leaked Documents Reveal

theintercept.com

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Re: Google Plans to Launch Censored Search Engine in China, Leaked Documents Reveal

#221

Post by wu-ikkyu »

econ4all wrote: post #26

There are a couple of recurring themes here: 1. the hyper-moralising over google's business decisions, they're not the only company that modifies its business to access the chinese market nor is the chinese government the only one that demands censorship. 2. google employees' attempts to sabotage the company's business prospects.

>hyper-moralising over google's business decisions

People are hyper moralizing because Google is hyper powerful.

"With great power comes great responsibility".

>google employees' attempts to sabotage the company's business prospects.

Perhaps they are doing so because they see these as attemts to sabotage Google's mission:

"To organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful."

Re: Google Plans to Launch Censored Search Engine in China, Leaked Documents Reveal

#222

Post by dragonwriter »

_zachs wrote: post #219

Where are the troves of Googler's who were against helping the US military? They're totally cool with helping China censor information?

Yes, people that support the PRC regime tend to also oppose the US military. How is this even the least bit surprising?

Re: Google Plans to Launch Censored Search Engine in China, Leaked Documents Reveal

#223

Post by brainfog »

_zachs wrote: post #219

Where are the troves of Googler's who were against helping the US military? They're totally cool with helping China censor information?

Er, some of us are just as pissed about this. What's your point? This also only just came out. We don't carry pagers for whenever our employer does something we don't agree with.

Re: Google Plans to Launch Censored Search Engine in China, Leaked Documents Reveal

#225

Post by nailer »

gt_ wrote: post #136
nailer wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not both? - American companies stop facilitating totalitarian regimes - World governments also prompt totalitarian regimes to move towards democracy

> Why not both? By definition, “companies” are incentivized to prioritize capital pursuit over moral pursuit. It’s actually the most fundamental part of the whole concept. Many democratic governments in the world, and particularly the most wealthy and powerful ones, are run by people who are (to a large unmeasurable extent) incentivized to do what companies want them to do. This is not a fundamental concept of a demo…

> By definition, “companies” are incentivized to prioritize capital pursuit over moral pursuit. It’s actually the most fundamental part of the whole concept.

Indeed. But if it's most reasonable economically, for a company to pay someone to dump their taxic waste into the sea, that doesn't mean it is morally OK to do so.

> Many democratic governments in the world, and particularly the most wealthy and powerful ones, are run by people who are (to a large unmeasurable extent) incentivized to do so what companies want them to do.

Yes. Lobbyists exist. They are bad. Lobbyists are bad because the undermine democracy. Democracy is not bad because of lobbyists.

Re: Google Plans to Launch Censored Search Engine in China, Leaked Documents Reveal

#226

Post by MrEldritch »

beauzero wrote: post #99
crunchlibrarian wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah it's strange how nobody talks about the fact that google search is getting less and less relevant and more and more filled with garbage every year. It's downright terrible, I have to go to social media or search with lots of domain operators (if I can remember them) to actually find what I'm looking for. I'm sure google's "analytics" say they are doing great and results are more relevant and engaging for them an…

It's funny you say that. DDG, 2 years ago, was hard for me to use (less relevant). The last 3 months especially, they are about the same. I have a limited search set though...mostly .NET code searches.

I personally find that for a lot of queries, especially ones of the "trivial" or "smart" kind where I'm looking for some old meme or bit of fandom trivia, DDG often returns results that are noticeably worse. Not much worse, and not always - but often enough that if I don't find something on DDG, I frequently try the same search on Google anyway.

That said, DDG isn't that much worse than Google in terms of search quality, and is perfectly fine for more "serious" queries - It's an inferior user experience, admittedly, but I'm willing to drink RC Cola instead of drinking cane-sugar old-recipe Coke that also is contaminated with lead.

Re: Google Plans to Launch Censored Search Engine in China, Leaked Documents Reveal

#227

Post by knockingat3am »

mocae wrote: post #220
crunchlibrarian wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah it's strange how nobody talks about the fact that google search is getting less and less relevant and more and more filled with garbage every year. It's downright terrible, I have to go to social media or search with lots of domain operators (if I can remember them) to actually find what I'm looking for. I'm sure google's "analytics" say they are doing great and results are more relevant and engaging for them an…

> Yeah it's strange how nobody talks about the fact that google search is getting less and less relevant Because it's not a fact? Or just a fact in a narrow community you belong to? I haven't seen anybody using something else for at least 10 years now.

Relevant in relation to the terms in the search query, not in relation to other search engines.

Re: Google Plans to Launch Censored Search Engine in China, Leaked Documents Reveal

#228

Post by influx »

cirenehc wrote: post #217
influx wrote: post #150

Google employees practically rioted when they found out their employer was trying to get a contract with the American Government, but will just cash their RSUs when they help the Chinese government censor its citizens. Sad.

The Chinese government is going to censor its citizens regardless though.

Will they be able to do it as well as google can? I guess as long as the stock price goes up. Cool man.

Re: Google Plans to Launch Censored Search Engine in China, Leaked Documents Reveal

#229

Post by stygiansonic »

_zachs wrote: post #219

Where are the troves of Googler's who were against helping the US military? They're totally cool with helping China censor information?

The article states that knowledge of the project was limited to a relatively small group of employees and was leaked by one of them who had moral concerns about it.

Re: Google Plans to Launch Censored Search Engine in China, Leaked Documents Reveal

#230

Post by 394549 »

cirenehc wrote: post #217
influx wrote: post #150

Google employees practically rioted when they found out their employer was trying to get a contract with the American Government, but will just cash their RSUs when they help the Chinese government censor its citizens. Sad.

The Chinese government is going to censor its citizens regardless though.

What's your point? The US military is going to engage in drone warfare regardless of the the objections of Google employees to Project Maven.
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