Google may pull out of China after Web attacks

Google may pull out of China after Web attacks

www.guardian.co.uk

Google Inc said it may pull out of China because it is no longer willing to accept censorship of search results and after hackers coordinated a sophisticated attack on email accounts of human rights activists using its Gmail service.
Google's surprise announcement on Tuesday came shortly after an adviser to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she will announce a technology policy next week to help citizens in other countries to gain access to an uncensored Internet.
More than 20 other companies were also attacked by the China-based hackers, Google said.
Google said the hackers had

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Oh, well. What can I say? That the world is a nice place to live in? Well, Google is not happy nowadays because of the attack on human rights - activists emails in China, which I can understand very well.

Well, Congratulations; China. You just made one of the biggest companies in the world pull out from your country.
(Sigh)

www.guardian.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 13-1-2010 by 0rigin]

Haha, I was just about to make a thread on this.

If a government was censoring my website that I worked hard on, I'd be pissed too.
Do you really think Hillary Clinton is going to talk to China about their strict internet censorship? If she does, it will change nothing.

China is a smart nation. They should be able to make their own internet if they really wanted(eventhough we all know that wont happen).
I say good for Google. That was weird to say.

I'm thinking Google is sorry it went to China and it proved more difficult than anticipated. Now it uses the excuse of not being able to adhere to the ideal of freedom of speech to slowly back away from China. It is a much better reason PR wise than saying it failed to start a succesful business in a new market and it has to cut costs so this branch is the first to go.

The actual cyber attacks might have been anything; maybe one human rights activist got a virus on their home pc from which it quickly spread to other human right activist by using one adress book. The gathered information was then send to some servers and routed to it's creators which then proceeded in using the gathered information. This appeared to be a coordinated attack possibly from the Chinese government while it might just have been some guy hoping to make a quick buck. Ofcourse any company would say it was a very sophisticated attack, it can't say it was a well known and older hacking method it would imply they are just not qualified enough to deal with account security.

[edit on 13/1/2010 by Dragonfly79]

Just to provide a completely new (apparently) and controversial thought into the discussion, Consider this question:

"At what point does Freedom of Speech become a Detriment to Civilization?"











Maybe they don't want their citizens minds Warped and destroyed by the marketing practices of Multinational Corporations.

Think about it.

-Edrick

[edit on 13-1-2010 by Edrick]

Originally posted by Edrick
Just to provide a completely new (apparently) and controversial thought into the discussion, Consider this question:

"At what point does Freedom of Speech become a Detriment to Civilization?"

Maybe they don't want their citizens minds Warped and destroyed by the marketing practices of Multinational Corporations.

Think about it.

-Edrick

[edit on 13-1-2010 by Edrick]

I rightfully disagree, it is still up to the people themselves to choose and make themselves vulnerable to these marketing influences or not. The more intelligent people among us can make a distinction in these matters.
I think it is good news from google, making an ethical decision and not based on profits, i believe there were other stories about google[here on ATS]..Too bad for the Chinese, the internet is still a good way of eroding the power of the communist party.

Originally posted by Foppezao

I think it is good news from google, making an ethical decision and not based on profits, i believe there were other stories about google[here on ATS]..Too bad for the Chinese, the internet is still a good way of eroding the power of the communist party.

An ethical decision? I disagree. Just check what google has done in the past. You underestimated the power of money.

To many people, this is just a convenient excuse.
Google is losing money and market share each and every day in China. If current trend continues, Google has no other choice but to leave. But I am surprised that they announced something like this. I think google should try some different tactics to see if they can succeed in China. So I hope google does have the guts to pull out of China.

reply to post by Foppezao

I rightfully disagree, it is still up to the people themselves to choose and make themselves vulnerable to these marketing influences or not. The more intelligent people among us can make a distinction in these matters.

Yeah, your right... Children are immune to Marketing and Peer Pressure.

And EVERYONE knows how Social Conditioning works... it's not like that information is EVER hidden or restricted in any way.

I mean... Don't we REGULARLY teach people, in like grade 3, to learn how to spot emotional manipulation language used to subtly change peoples worldviews?



Your "Rightful" disagreement, leaves much to be desired.

-Edrick

[edit on 13-1-2010 by Edrick]

Originally posted by Edrick
reply to post by Foppezao

 

I rightfully disagree, it is still up to the people themselves to choose and make themselves vulnerable to these marketing influences or not. The more intelligent people among us can make a distinction in these matters.

Yeah, your right... Children are immune to Marketing and Peer Pressure.

And EVERYONE knows how Social Conditioning works... it's not like that information is EVER hidden or restricted in any way.

I mean... Don't we REGULARLY teach people, in like grade 3, to learn how to spot emotional manipulation language used to subtly change peoples worldviews?

Your "Rightful" disagreement, leaves much to be desired.

-Edrick

[edit on 13-1-2010 by Edrick]

So children are vulnerable to marketing pressure, then what? is that a crime? If you raise them by good parents in a free society they'll get to a point where they can see through the marketing, hypes be independent and such, and if they don't then they don't..If i by these sneakers because of some cool commercial, well good for this company, bad for the other eventually quality will pay off and then i'll buy the others sneakers next time, who cares...
But you're right we should take an example of the red guards and the kids who lead those and their brave accomplishments in China..
If you think China doesn't warp their citizens minds and actually shield them from it by censoring the internet, then i guess there's only one place you come from...

reply to post by Foppezao

So children are vulnerable to marketing pressure, then what? is that a crime?

So, IT is your stance that Corporations have the Right to Brainwash Children?

If you raise them by good parents in a free society they'll get to a point where they can see through the marketing, hypes be independent and such, and if they don't then they don't..

Of course... Because these marketing ploys Are *SO* Obvious... and not Subliminal at all, eh?

If i by these sneakers because of some cool commercial, well good for this company, bad for the other eventually quality will pay off and then i'll buy the others sneakers next time, who cares...

You're not thinking about this very hard, are you?

But you're right we should take an example of the red guards and the kids who lead those and their brave accomplishments in China..
If you think China doesn't warp their citizens minds and actually shield them from it by censoring the internet, then i guess there's only one place you come from...

Born in Washington D.C. my friend.

Lived in America All my life.

Make some more assumptions about me...

-Edrick