The Net is Dead

Marco van Hylckama Vlieg on web technology, design, life and everything

Commentary

Join the discussion! Leave a comment through the comment form below!

• At 30 May '06 - 14:35 stefan wrote:

  

  I sincerely share your opinion on censorship, but really, attacking Google and Microsoft (fun though it is to bash Microsoft every opportunity you can get) is a cheap short here. Both are public companies now, with investors watching there every move. And even though the companies may care about censorship or such things (Google still adheres to their motto ‘Do No Evil’ as far as I know), investors/share holders only care about the money. That’s why they invested. So when a company takes a very critical stance towards any of those countries, then Google will probably be fully blocked in that country. Result: lower income, lower profit, less money for the investors.
  
  Do not underestimate the power of the share holders of a public company.

  
  

• At 30 May '06 - 15:33 Jeriko One wrote:

  

  Shouldn’t it be a shame that it’s all about the money? I mean, if companies like for example Google do invest in countries like China, they’re literally maintaining silence about the human rights violations being done there – with censorship included.
  
  I do remember when Germanys old foreign minister Joschka Fischer were on a visit to China, he had a talk with the president, and about 300 metres away were people tortured at the same time. Okay, politics are no companies, but they could have an impact as well – if they wanted to.
  
  Also, it’s not that Google wasn’t present at the chinese market, it’s just that their search engine was slower than the local ones – and is still in a minor position.
  
  I can understand the decision of companies like Yahoo! to invest in an expanding market – but I definetely don’t like it.
  
  By the way Marco, your trackbacks doesn’t seem to work.

  
  

• At 31 May '06 - 00:25 Marco wrote:

  

  @Stefan, hence the phrase: “because the money is apparently much more important to them”.
  
  The companies ARE their investors.
  
  @Jeriko Thanks I’ll look into it!

  
  

• At 31 May '06 - 06:55 Marco wrote:

  

  Update: The trackback should work again.

  
  

• At 02 June '06 - 00:13 Omnis wrote:

  

  Theres no point attacking Google or Microsoft, companies like this have minimal power in countries that actively censor opinions, unnecessary content and so fourth. These countries are ruled by governments who ultimately have too much power and control over peoples choices. The only people that can change them are those that live in that country and perhaps their allies over time.
  
  I do agree that censorship sucks in this case! Mainly because its run by opinions and operated by propaganda. I also believe countries like this should not have the right to use the internet until they conform to the most basic levels of human rights which includes freedom of speech.
  
  Good Luck with your cause

  
  

• At 02 June '06 - 00:32 Marco wrote:

  

  The thing with these companies is the fact that they are happily cooperating with those governments. Google was allowed to operate in China only if they censor out all search results that contain stuff the government doesn’t appreciate. They complied which means they’re indirectly supporting the censorship. Google’s ‘truth’ in China is a whole lot different from the rest of the world.
  
  I bet this link link will yield quite different results when executed from within China. Funny eh?

  
  

• At 05 June '06 - 18:46 Dan wrote:

  

  No offense, but neither google nor microsoft can change the laws in these sovereign nations. If Google doesn’t abide China’s laws, China censor’s Google; the entire thing. If Google says “We disagree with your laws, and thus will not comply” means nothing to China. They’ll just flip the switch. However, for Google it means a huge population of that represents a gigantic revenue source.
  
  Yahoo, however, has done some bad things that go beyond allowing censorship… It’s one thing to operate under restrictions. It is another thing entirely to provide aid in capturing others who violated censorship laws.

  
  

• At 05 June '06 - 18:59 Montoya wrote:

  

  To everyone defending Google and Microsoft: Why do business in China then? Weren’t they making enough money with business in the U.S.? It’s hurting the U.S. enough that these companies are taking U.S. money and investing it in other countries… on top of that we have the ethical reason not to do it… I think that’s enough. Investors or not, if every company refused to do business there, it wouldn’t hurt them much.

  
  

• At 09 August '06 - 20:34 Davron wrote:

  

  ‘‘If China does not want freedom of speech on its territory, Google should leave and should not work there at all. Instead of Google.cn, Chinese users would visit Google.com. The government would be able to block Google completely, since it does not have an access to Google’s search engine. Chinese users do not depend on Google. Google is completely free and private company which can choose to block anything they want.’‘
  
  I would say Fuck censorship as well.
  Fuck Dictators, fuck stupid assholes and all the motherfuckers that do stupid shit. Fuck fuckin soldiers who kill civilians – fuck WAR, fuck the whole fucking “crisis in middle east”,
  
  What the fuck is UN waiting for? What the fuck is “HRW” watching?

  
  

• At 20 October '06 - 21:00 Chris Walker wrote:

  

  Sorry if this is a 2xpost, my browser’s acting strangely.
  
  This comment includes some semi-off topic info. (About censorship….)
  http://xbladegaming.com/cgiproxy/nph-pro.. – My anon proxy.
  
  The U.S. and its alliance have enough power to put a stop to China’s terrible acts. Diplomatically. Soon, we won’t have that power. The Chinese develop their own technologies based on our own (our other countries’) and use it to their advantage. Being a commercial ally to someone with completely different ideals isn’t very smart….
  
  I agree. Fuck censorship. I’m 14 and they treat me like I should be protected from something. Excuse me, but no censor will keep me from anything I want. Vista (next Microsoft OS) will come with inbuilt parental controls. Well, then someone will hack Vista. Break the system. We shouldn’t be doing ANY business with countries such as China who censor their people and commit atrocious human rights violations. Yes, unfortunately it’s all about the money, but if every U.S. and European company jumped ship China would be forced to lessen their restrictions on free speech. Also, name ONE “child” who complained about being exposed to “innapropriate material”. I count 0. Information cannot be restricted. It will come through one way or another. It’s an arms race. It’s only a matter of time until the Chinese people revolt. It has been done. It will be done.
  
  Censorship – The idea that people should be protected from themselves. My school blocks access to email which I need to send works in case our network/usb is nonfunctioning. I use anti-censorship programs which I will not disclose here. (*evil laughter*). Censorship will ALWAYS be counter-productive despite anyone’s best intrest. “Categories” are subjective. Everyone has a different definition for everything. Disallowing access to any one resource may have collateral damage. Due to the immense nature of the internet, human filtering (which would STILL be questionable) is impossible. The system CANNOT work. There are so many imperfections. If I find something I don’t like, there’s that close button. Or Alt F4, if you prefer. Sure, I understand schools don’t want us to be messing around with porn on school hours :P. However, implementing a censor is not a solution. It would block 100 people from acceptable websites and 1 person from the P site. I can attest that no one would even try to do such a thing. The worst I’ve seen is a few rounds of http://www.addictinggames/.com.. The System even when applied for benign reasons will fail miserably. Information can only be controlled for so long, if at all….
  
  So, again, fuck censorship.

  
  

• At 19 December '06 - 05:13 Corey wrote:

  On the f censorship: You will come to think differently about the issue. Some things are beyond a one’s control and this lack of control is a vulnerability which is eagerly exploited by people who are willing too. So, I ask: Is it better to label something as having no other purpose than to exploit a person’s lack of control or is it better to let someONE exploit a lack of control we all agree is integral to life. The people that we should rightfully resent for attacking our freedom are the the ones who would have us believe that we must do away with all freedom in order to be the safest – they know that this will be unnacceptable and so they continue to hammer away at us with filth until it is. They make the definitions.

  
  

• At 22 September '07 - 19:35 Jonas D. Rand (ionas68224) wrote:

  

  I am glad to see someone who is also telling the truth. I agree fully with you. I am also a child, being 11 years old, and have noticed big companies like Microsoft and Google censoring. Take a look at this site that was unfortunately censored by google. Google are assholes, and since we have the right to free speech in this country, Alex Chiu has the right to sue. Although I consider him a looney toons, I still advocate his right to freedom of speech. Also, you should see Daniel Brandt’s sites, Google-Watch and Microsoft Watch that show the corruptions of those companies. China is censoring any thing they get their corrupt hands on. It is going to be Worldwide Tiananmen Square, only instead of shootings, it is going to be censorship. The Ministry of TruthAmeriKKKan tyrannical regime are going to make the whole book Nineteeen Eighty-Four real. An innocent, intelligent, nonthreating college student who is also an artist gets charged with disorderly conduct JUST FOR EXPRESSING HER FEELINGS for a (quite nice, in my opinion) piece of art resembling a bomb when EVERYONE FUCKING KNEW IT WAS NOT A BOMB. Did they really think it was going to kill people, OR DID THJEY JUST TRY AND CENSOR SOMETHING BECAUSE IT DIDN’T APPEAL TO them? That was done for no reason at all, yet the regime still says FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION, FREEDOM OF SPEECH, COME TO AMERICA (notice not “freedom of immigration without restraint or scrutiny”), etc. That is the hypocrisy of the government of this ridiculous police state. Censorship will be the world’s first step to endless war and global tyranny. Silence not the voices, comrade!
  
  —jdr

  
  

• At 22 September '07 - 19:53 ThE_ShAdOw wrote:

  

  Yahoo and Microsoft divulged any information needed to the U.S. Federal Government when asked. Google didn’t. Microsoft and Yahoo provide data-storage services in China even though the government could ask for it at any time. Google doesn’t. It’s a brilliant solution, really. Google’s position is that some relevant data is better than none at all. In Google’s case, it was “bow down or SHUT down”. In the U.S. situation, Google could legally spin around and say “Shut the fuck up”. Not so in China. It’s sad that legality trumps everything, but it’s either that or shutting down the world’s best search. (Yes, I’ve tried almost everything.) As 1984 has shown, everyone has a price…..

  
  

• At 22 November '07 - 14:32 Jonas D. Rand (Ionas68224) wrote:

  

  If Google “couldn’t help it”, why couldn’t they boycott China until they stopped the censorship and rights violations? Was it all about the money? Why did Google not protest, but bow down to their every order? That is interesting.

  
  

• At 18 May '08 - 05:51 dude wrote:

  

  A clogged pipe still leaks, eventually it will puddle and a new generation will take hold of said puddle to wash away the tyrany of censorship.

  
  

• At 20 June '08 - 12:52 Joey wrote:

  

  If google keeps giving information to terrorists by controling all of internet marketing and being a global internet search engine world war three will happen and i will say thanks google for a a dumbass

  
  

• At 29 January '09 - 11:49 Censorship by chinese gov? wrote:

  Fuck censorship without a doubt!
  China is buying half the world atm. I would suppose they are trying to censorship anything that they don’t understand.

  
  

• At 09 July '09 - 19:02 ddoodm wrote:

  

  grrrr youtube have been cesored. I put you dirty wanker (in a postive way) and wanker got censored. FUCK YOUTUBE FOR JOINING GOOGLE
  
  FUCK WINDOWS
  FUCK GOOGLE
  FUCK COMMINUST COUNTRIES (wrong spelling)

  
  

• At 02 August '10 - 17:05 Daniel O'Hare wrote:

  

  In the end you will not win.
  
  It really is just that simple.
  
  Yes, perhaps mankind is on the cusp of suffering yet another setback but the heart of man will again rise as always and triumph in the light.
  
  You invoke that I should here observe “common decency” and as such as you have set the precedent I surely will, I invite you, Yahoo, et all, to bend over and perform upon yourselves a biologically impossible act, have a nice day…
  
  :)

  
  

One or more comments are waiting for approval by me.

Got something to add to this?

Feel free to leave a comment on this site. You can use Textile and Emoticons. Your email address is only used to show a gravatar. Please stay on-topic and use common decency. Spammers will be shot in front of a live studio audience.

If you plan on posting code, use pastebin please and post a URL to the code. The comment processing doesn't deal very well with code. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Human comment spammers: don't bother posting your crap here. Comments are moderated and I won't let any of your shit through.

Trackbacks

• Earlier musings
• JSFiddle: All sorts of awesome! (1)
• Screamager a HTML5 application (1)
• Realistic LCD display effect with pure CSS (1)
• Node.js shortened URL decoder (6)
• Stereoscopic 3D television - Some thoughts (8)
• Mass Effect - The best Space Opera of all time (4)
• Yup, Yet another JQuery Accordion Plugin (151)
• Week In Links: a WordPress plugin for link digest posts (1)
• Technorati: What happened to you? (6)
• Some random thoughts about the iPad (2)
• Bookalicio.us version 2.0: an attempt to design the prettiest book blog on the net (4)
• Me, version 2.0. Released! (13)
• PreDevCamp SF Bay Area at Palm HQ - a videoblog (7)
• Me, version 2.0, almost done (2)
• Why I choose the Palm Pre to be my next mobile phone (8)

• Tumblr
• Photo
• Age of Reason: A Bag of Nails
• Feed me!
• Photo
• Belgian firefighters soak police in protest
• Photo
• The stakes are high in Mass Effect 3. (via @Unggoy_Murderer)
• "In the neo-evangelical world of cheap prosperity and cheap family values, the name of Jesus gets..."
• evilteabagger: Scott gave me my new room piece today (he’s...
• Epic.
• Don’t allow man friend here to let your dog out. Hah! The dawgs...
• "One of the things I will talk about, that no president has talked about before, is I think the..."
• Photo
• Puglet is off to school! Go get ‘em little guy!...
• visit me on Tumblr

• Tag Universe
• ajax apple blog bloggers blogging blogosphere blogs blogspam browser browsers clock comment_spam css design dutch firefox flickr google hype internet islam javascript mac mint pagerank performance photography php php5 pivot pivot-blacklist pivot_blacklist powerbook programming prototype rails referrer+spam referrer_spam rss spam spammer spammers taggerati tags technorati template trackback typo usa variable virb web+2 web_2 weblog weblogs website wordpress xhtml xsl yui (all)