Censors Take Down YouTube and Google News in China

Amid the recent protests and violent crackdown in Tibet, the Chinese government is closing off all media access to the region and censoring reports about Tibet inside China. That includes not just CNN, but YouTube and Google News. Both Google (GOOG) sites have been blocked from the Internet in China. News reports about the protests and images that appear to come from inside Tibet are available on YouTube. To prevent its citizens from seeing these videos or reading about them, the Chinese government has taken down all of YouTube and Google News inside China.

This isn’t the first time YouTube has been censored. Last month, Pakistan ended up taking down YouTube worldwide for a couple hours because of some supposedly “blasphemous” videos on the site. And in September, Myanmar blocked the entire Internet during a period of political unrest.

The question is: What will Google do to restore access to YouTube and Google News inside China? China is a big market that Google needs to be a player in. Will it voluntarily strip out all videos or news items about Tibet? Or will the Chinese government just figure out how to strip them out itself? There is a precedent here: in China you cannot find a lot of information about the 1989 Tiananmen Square uprising on the Web, including the famous image of the lone man standing in front of the line of tanks. Most young Chinese have never seen that image.

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?

Comments

[MichaelG:]

The U.S. and it's citizens cannot be complicit in helping China ban news. China's citizens will find a way to get the news and do something about it when they have had enough.

2008 Mar 17 02:00 PM

[gofer:]

Sadly, Google will do exactly as the Chinese government wishes. There is no right or wrong, no moral dilemas, no question about it. The Chinese market means money, and the Standford PHDs always goes with, and for the money. Unfortunate.

2008 Mar 17 02:44 PM

[Tom B:]

I expect the Chinese firewalls don't require complicity from Google.

We saw a lot more images coming out of Burma, it seems to me.

2008 Mar 17 03:18 PM

[gofer:]

So Thomas Barta, just which one are you defending...Google, the Chinese govt, or BOTH??

2008 Mar 17 05:53 PM

[iNeal:]

The US government discouraged the media from showing the flag-draped coffins of our soldiers. What's the difference?

2008 Mar 17 09:10 PM

[Tom B:]

"So Thomas Barta, just which one are you defending...Google, the Chinese govt, or BOTH??"

Google, if anyone. I personally believe independent countries should be independent.

2008 Mar 18 10:07 AM

[StateofConf...:]

The question is, should technology and information companies be complicit in a government's control of it's people? What would happen if the U.S. government had a news blackout for National security? It would probably work at least in the short term. Morally, Google should not help suppress people and be willing to get out if forced to do so. The WTO should clearly define what a company should do so that it is consistant for all members.

2008 Mar 18 05:23 PM

[bck136:]

And this is why Net Neutrality is far, far more important than people seem to understand.

"in China you cannot find a lot of information about the 1989 Tiananmen Square uprising on the Web, including the famous image of the lone man standing in front of the line of tanks. Most young Chinese have never seen that image."

Hooray for the suppression of information! Who needs an enlightened and educated populace? Just let your censors decide what they can think, it's so much easier that way. All your citizenry needs to be is compliant, nothing more...

2008 Mar 19 11:05 AM

[windinmyface2:]

I'm married to a Chinese woman, and have been to China several times, Shanghai. I say good for the Chinese government!!! They are struggling to hold on to THEIR culture, not ours, and frankly, I don't think they know what to do now, and because of greed, as with the rest of the world, they are letting in the influence of the outside world. The Chinese youth are changing to fast, and all want to be like Americans, and I see, and tell my wife, that in the next 10 to 20 years she won't, and the Chinese government won't know what hit them. Is it such a grat thing to give up your culture to adopt another. I feel so sorry for them, and when they have lazy, un disciplined, Rapp listening worthless children, like many of our own, they will either fold to it, or have a massive clamp down. I would tell all outside business, and governments, if you want to do buisness in my country, then you will go by my rules, and don't expect us to change for you. We fail to see all the bad in our country, and are quick to critize others. Like they say, clean up your own back yard. I have walked down the streets of slum areas in Shanghai, at night, in total darkness, and felt safe. Last week I went to a city in California, to the old down town area, and as evening came on, more, and more of our BETTER citizen started to come out, I told my wife, we need to get out of here before dark, true. Don't believe everything you hear, or read, certainly not from the Media.

2008 Apr 01 10:25 AM

[onmyway:]

@ windinmyface2: I'm Chinese, I speak Mandarin and another dialect fluently, and I've worked in two different Chinese cities.

so yeah, I'm one of the "Chinese youth" you claim to know so much about, and I like Chinese culture too. But the Chinese government isn't doing much to preserve it (either artistically or in broader terms), nor are its repressive, authoritarian actions at all representative of "Chinese culture."

2008 Apr 03 10:18 AM