News and Views on Tibet

Google facing Valentine’s Day dump

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Google is set to feel the wrath of supporters of a free Tibet who are trying to gee up interest in a boycott of the leading search engine because of its recent decision to censor information and links from its Chinese site, google.cn.

Pro-Tibetan supporters are using Valentine’s Day to officially launch a new site – noluv4google.com – where Google users are encouraged to publicly disavow their love for the Big G.

“Kissing up to the Chinese government, Google has custom-built a search engine for China and Tibet that blocks access to information sensitive to the Chinese authorities including “human rights”, “democracy”, and “freedom”, the site says.

The website is registered to Students for a Free Tibet, a New York-based group that’s been agitating for Tibetan rights and freedoms since 1994.

Earlier this month, Goolge agreed to blocking people using its Chinese search service from gaining access to websites containing politically sensitive material.

It means that people in China will find it difficult to locate information on the web about banned topics such as Tibet (because of the refusal by the Dalai Lama – the exiled Tibetan spiritual head – to recognise Beijing); Taiwan (which wants to reclaim as a formal part of the motherland) and Tiananmen Square (because of the student protest movement that was crushed in 1989).

Apart from being able to pledge your dying (sic) love for Google, users can watch a little video promo (host on YourTube, not Google Video); read news articles about Google’s so-called treachery and find alternative ways of searching the web.

But those alternatives don’t include Yahoo or Microsoft’s MSN, two of Google’s main search rivals. Both have also been accused of snuggling up to the Chinese authorities.

Yahoo has been accused of providing Chinese authorities with information about at least two people who used its email services, the details of which were subsequently used against them in court.

MSN has been accused of censoring online news sites and blogs featuring content that China’s communist government wants to suppress.

I don’t know if this one’s going to fly. Admittedly, Google’s acquiescence in the censorship makes a mockery of its “don’t be evil” motto, but I doubt that this is the splitting point.

My guess is that the convenience and attractiveness of Google’s offering and freebies will make it hard for all but the diehards to make the break.

SJ Hutcheon

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