back to article Google, please DRILL through Great Firewall of China with your HTTPS LANCE

A non-profit anti-censorship body has called on Eric Schmidt and Google to lead by example and call China’s bluff on web censorship with a simple two-pronged approach. GreatFire.org co-founder Charlie Smith claimed in a blog post that Google should switch its China search service to HTTPS by default, as it does in the US, …

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  1. Khaptain Silver badge

    Google and Politics. Hurts my eyes

    This is where Google is going too far, they are now actively playing the altruistic political rhetoric card.

    >“They have sometimes made Google services like Gmail excruciatingly difficult to use,” he wrote. “But given how essential Google’s services are to so many individuals and businesses, blocking the company entirely would have immediate and disastrous economic consequences.”

    1st: Google is not essential to anyone or anything. They are a service that can be used or not.... Obligation = Zero..

    2nd: Disastrous economic consequences - For whom - Google...... The money will simply be ingested by someone or some other business ( hopefully a meriting business)

    3rd: If the Chinese govt decide to put up a firewall then that is a Chinese govt problem not a google problem. By making "blocked" sites available then google are effectively breaking Chinese law and should be punished accordingly. When in Rome....

    Eric Schmidt has become the ultimate "CockWomble". (Whoever came up with that word deserves a pint).

    Why is it that when people reach a certain level of wealth they suddenly feel the need to become saviours of humanity. Gates, Bono, Schmidt, Joly..... Smells like cheap publicity.

    If they want to be altruistic, give the money and do the work anonymously.......without the publicity.....

    Monday was Ok , I have Tuesday morning blues

    1. ratfox
      Stop

      "This is where Google is going too far"

      Did you read the article? Google has nothing to do with these propositions. And the article makes it clear they are unlikely to implement them, because probably they agree with your 1st and 2nd point, if not the 3rd…

      1. Khaptain Silver badge

        Re: "This is where Google is going too far"

        Mea culpa,

        I have confused the name Smith with Schmidt. I read the article as though it was Eric Schmidt that was making the suggestions.

        1. Khaptain Silver badge

          Re: "This is where Google is going too far"

          I can't believe it, after all that El Reg fires out this article Schmidt: Social networking will FREE THE PEOPLE of China.

          Maybe I wasn't too far from the truth after all.....

  2. Gordon Pryra

    What about the reverse?

    Where China starts paying people to give the US and UK access to sites our government has blocked?

    Why bring Google into this arena?

    Get the fuck out of politics, the people who get hurt are the poor sods who go onto banned websites through this and get arrested for it.

    I doubt anyone at Google would spend time in jail, not so the people on the ground.

    And who the fuck are Google to be the Internets freedom fighters? Their only motive to information freedom is their ability to make money out of it, I don't see them opening up their databases to everyone, just them asking everyone else to open up to them!!

  3. StareClips.com

    This makes no sense whatsoever. Here are two statements that seem at odds:

    "...given how essential Google’s services are to so many individuals and businesses, blocking the company entirely would have immediate and disastrous economic consequences..."

    "...Google currently has less than a five per cent share of the Chinese search market..."

    How could the blocking of a service that represents "less than five per cent share of the Chinese search market" have immediate and disastrous economic consequences? Unless, of course, those "disastrous economic consequences" would be to reduce Google's "less than five per cent share" to "zero" and give that share up to another search provider.

    1. andrew3

      Less than 5%...

      Do you know how many people live in China?

  4. Graham Marsden
    Thumb Up

    I just want to say...

    ... I loved the video :-)

  5. asdf

    evil Chinese government

    It is disgusting how the Chinese government censors the internet and monitors the actions of its people online. I am so glad Western governments would never do this. There before some fellow countryman comes on and starts ripping on the dirty Commies getting the Merkin bashing going I thought I would be proactive.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    INB4 Hyperbole

    Great Firewall of where?

    China or the UK?

  7. Kevin McMurtrie Silver badge
    Big Brother

    Money

    Google will do whatever makes it the most money. That means no HTTPS for the Chinese. HTTPS is only turned on elsewhere because Google spends a lot of effort collecting your most personal data and they don't want to share it for free.

    China will do whatever makes it the most money. That means jailing dissidents, stealing software, blocking foreign Internet services, and hosting as many hackers as they can cram into their IPv4 address space.

    Good luck to GreatFire.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Money

      You're confusing money and power. The goal for the Chinese in power is to stay in power, and the money flows are merely a means to that end. You don't seriously think that jailing dissidents or censoring the internet helps them make money, do you?

      China has seen what happens to other countries where the US convinces them that a "free market" is the way to go, and they end up as a growth market for US and EU multinationals with only markets where there is little profit to be had left over for local business.

      The US stole IP, erecting barriers to prevent foreign companies from moving in and so on while it was growing. China's leaders are smart enough not to fall for the US government's "do as I say, not as I did" rhetoric.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Money

        Please explain in detail what IP the "US stole"!

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Money

          If you can't be bothered to do your own research, why should I? Look up Charles Dicken and US copyright, for a start. There were also many patents in Europe that weren't recognized in the US when it suited us, until the 1900s when the US started inventing more stuff than the rest of the world.

          Now of course copyright and patents are something we fight for with every international trade deal trying to tighten them and extend the terms.

  8. Lenny_Hao

    Who is Google (and for that matter GreatFire.org) to try to modify another country's culture and governance? It seems activists for human rights in foreign parts have forgotten that many can recall when homosexual activity was illegal in the UK, we had golliwogs on our jam jars and women were paid less than men. And that’s without getting started on the USA's obsession with their right to firearms...

    Cultures are hard to steer and slow to change. It's barefaced arrogance to try to play holier than thou with China.

    1. Mephistro
      Thumb Up

      (@ Lenny_Hao)

      And to think that one year ago I'd have downvoted your post...

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Side order Of Great Chinese DNS Server

    to go with that firewall.

  10. Ken Hagan Gold badge

    Why pick on China?

    Google could set an example by only offering an https service, worldwide. This would annoy spooks in every country (except for the NSA who have a legal backdoor) and perhaps encourage a few more sites to start offering private services. It would be nice if we could get most of the web on https before the next idiot politician decides to "solve" a problem by mandating deep packet inspection of everything everywhere.

  11. Stretch

    Blocking GitHub was the best thing they ever did

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