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If Google bows to China’s censorship, it will put tech giant on a slippery slope

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11–20 of 26 posts

Re: If Google bows to China’s censorship, it will put tech giant on a slippery slope

#11
post #9

When will the lesson be learned? When will the lesson be learned? How many more dictators must be wooed, appeased - good God, given immense privileges - before we learn? YOU CANNOT REASON WITH A TIGER WHEN YOUR HEAD IS IN ITS MOUTH.

You also can't reason with a tiger when it doesn't have copyright laws, and the only difference between your service and your competition is whether or not you're the one getting paid.

Re: If Google bows to China’s censorship, it will put tech giant on a slippery slope

#12
post #8
post #6

If you do business you have to cooperate with the government and the law of that land. It is up to the people of that country to change their laws and government. I would be much more concerned if google gets an exception. In the west bigcorp gets their lobbyist army (google is #1) to get past laws and the people's will. I hope China won't bow down to Google. America is operated by corporations, some countries are no…

China is an authoritarian state. China isn't going to bow down to Google. The honorable, and the correct, thing for Google to do is not operate in China, but of course they aren't going to do that.

If Chinese people are fine with their government and great firewall, why should we or Google care.

Re: If Google bows to China’s censorship, it will put tech giant on a slippery slope

#13

What's the slippery slope here? According to the article: > if [Google] accedes to the Chinese government’s demands, it will make it easier for others to do so, and will also embolden other totalitarian states to ask for their own custom censorship services from Google and other tech giants. I think this is all premised on the belief that American corporations somehow have the moral obligation (and right) to change t…

> What's the slippery slope here?

What if a state is trying to push policies globally? E.g. If China requires companies to not recognize Taiwan globally, and then to censor, and report on anti-socialists and ... ? Or if Russia will start to require global recognition of Crimea on maps.

Re: If Google bows to China’s censorship, it will put tech giant on a slippery slope

#14
post #6

If you do business you have to cooperate with the government and the law of that land. It is up to the people of that country to change their laws and government. I would be much more concerned if google gets an exception. In the west bigcorp gets their lobbyist army (google is #1) to get past laws and the people's will. I hope China won't bow down to Google. America is operated by corporations, some countries are no…

Shh, you'll alert the drones.

Re: If Google bows to China’s censorship, it will put tech giant on a slippery slope

#15
post #6

If you do business you have to cooperate with the government and the law of that land. It is up to the people of that country to change their laws and government. I would be much more concerned if google gets an exception. In the west bigcorp gets their lobbyist army (google is #1) to get past laws and the people's will. I hope China won't bow down to Google. America is operated by corporations, some countries are no…

America is operated by the people (including corporations) whereas China is run by the party. It’s more likely that China will be coercing Google tonchange their business outside of China. But it doesn’t sound like that would worry you.

Re: If Google bows to China’s censorship, it will put tech giant on a slippery slope

#16
post #12
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China is an authoritarian state. China isn't going to bow down to Google. The honorable, and the correct, thing for Google to do is not operate in China, but of course they aren't going to do that.

If Chinese people are fine with their government and great firewall, why should we or Google care.

Because China will have leverage over Google and it has used that leverage in the past to affect countries/people outside of China.

Re: If Google bows to China’s censorship, it will put tech giant on a slippery slope

#17
post #6

If you do business you have to cooperate with the government and the law of that land. It is up to the people of that country to change their laws and government. I would be much more concerned if google gets an exception. In the west bigcorp gets their lobbyist army (google is #1) to get past laws and the people's will. I hope China won't bow down to Google. America is operated by corporations, some countries are no…

America is operated by the people (including corporations) whereas China is run by the party. It’s more likely that China will be coercing Google tonchange their business outside of China. But it doesn’t sound like that would worry you.

But the only two ways Google will ever become successful in China is by cooperating or by overthrowing the Chinese government (it's a joke, just in case).

I am not sure which one I would prefer: a corporation in charge of government, or a corporation known for "not being evil" being told what to do by an oppressive government.

Re: If Google bows to China’s censorship, it will put tech giant on a slippery slope

#18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think this is all premised on the belief that American corporations somehow have the moral obligation (and right) to change the way things in a different country work. > China has its own functioning tech ecosystem, so entrant companies need to play by its rules if they want to make a profit there. Period. Nazi Germany also had "its own functioning tech ecosystem". So did Stalin and Mao's even more murderous regi…

Straight to Godwin's law (in this case, I think it's germane). My argument is about American corporations imposing morality (or thinking they can). Corporations' main motivation is profit, not improving human rights. Google doesn't go to China with the primary intention of improving human rights, rather to make a profit from Chinese citizens. Google would have to pay Chinese taxes to operate there, their presence put…

But by entering the Chinese market, Google allows itself to be influenced by the requirements of The Party. At this point the main motivation of profit can be turned into whatever The Party wants outside China.

Re: If Google bows to China’s censorship, it will put tech giant on a slippery slope

#19
post #13

What's the slippery slope here? According to the article: > if [Google] accedes to the Chinese government’s demands, it will make it easier for others to do so, and will also embolden other totalitarian states to ask for their own custom censorship services from Google and other tech giants. I think this is all premised on the belief that American corporations somehow have the moral obligation (and right) to change t…

> What's the slippery slope here? What if a state is trying to push policies globally? E.g. If China requires companies to not recognize Taiwan globally, and then to censor, and report on anti-socialists and ... ? Or if Russia will start to require global recognition of Crimea on maps.

This is how it already works and America is one of the biggest offenders when it comes to pushing policies globally.

In the past few months therr have been endless complaints on this forum about China pushing their policies on foreign companies, or Russia pushing their policies, or the EU pushing their policies. This is exactly what the US has been doing this whole time, but now that we've lost our absolute dominance we are going to have to start dealing with other countries as peers again rather than semi vassals who will change their laws and policies as we demand

Re: If Google bows to China’s censorship, it will put tech giant on a slippery slope

#20
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Chinese people are fine with their government and great firewall, why should we or Google care.

Because China will have leverage over Google and it has used that leverage in the past to affect countries/people outside of China.

Ummm, is that not what another large powerful country does? Or going back to the Romans, did? Isn't that the whole point of being large and powerful?
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