The Great Firewall of China

The Great Firewall of China China is known to have a “Great Firewall” because of governmental efforts to control the free flow of information on the internet Chinese goverment violates human rights (Amnesty International) Internet companies help the Chinese government’s censorship: e.g. Yahoo!, Microsoft and Google

The Great Firewall of China These three companies colaborated with Chinese censorship because they are looking for big new markets like China. For this reason: Yahoo!: provided Chinese authorities with private and confidential information about its users Microsoft: shut down a blog on the basis of a government request. Google: launched a censored version of its international search engine in China.

The Great Firewall of China These companies have demonstrated a disregard for their own internally driven and proclaimed policies. McLaughlin, Google director said that “to remove results is not compatible with the Google mission” but he also said that “if we want to operate in China we have to remove some results from China.cn in order to carry out local laws”.

The Great Firewall in China This is the main reason the companies give to explain their activity in China. They argue that although it’s not an ideal situation, their presence in China is a force for good in the end. Instead of helping bring the Internet to China, their activities are facilitating and sanctioning government censorship rather than challenging it. These companies accept the limitations imposed on them by the government. With their collaboration they provide necessary technology and legitimize the actions of the government.

Amnesty International states: „local law“ = Constitution! Internet is being used as a tool to deny FoX: Chinese Corporations governement complicit suppresses in those HR dissent abuses

Yahoo! Journalist Shi Tao imprisoned for 10 years for sending an email signed a ‘Public Pledge on Self-discipline for the Chinese Internet Industry’ “…refrain from producing, posting or disseminating harmful information that may jeopardise state security…”

Reactions: Yahoo vs. Google? Companies all act against their proclaimed values & stated policies of ethical responsibility Yahoo! denies all responsibility Google admitted double standards & promises to restrict further collaboration

The Great Firewall in China Amnesty International made some recomendations to those and other Internet companies operating in China: Publicly commit to honouring the freedom of expression provision in the Chinese constitution. Be transparent about the filtering process used by the company in China. Make publicly avaliable all agreements between the company and the Chinese government with implications for censorship of information and suppression of dissent.

The Great Firewall in China Exhaust all judicial remedies and appeals in China and the internationally before complying with state directives where these have human rights implications. Develop and explicit human rights policy. Clarify to what extent human rights consideration are taken into account. Exercise leadership in promoting human rights in China. Participate in and support the outcomes of a multi-stakeholder process.

Some practical examples… By Marianne Davril

In China people have different search engines: - Google.com - Google.cn created in january 2006 - Baidu.com, a chinese engine

Google.cn Searches on key words as « Tienanmen », « Dalaï Lama », « revolution », « faith », are blocked Western news websites are not available Lets see: comparision between google.com and google.cn

Baidu.com Example with the date of tiananmen events: 4 june 1989 The search engine crashes, it is not available anymore

Bypassing the firewall… An american journalist found some artifices to get access to information -example on google.cn with the right and the wrong spelling of « Tiananmen » Today, chinese people know how to get «free» access to information. For them it is better to have something than nothing. -reactions of chinese people: www.internetactu.net.

Solutions? Should we boycott these internet companies in order to encourage the chinese govern ment to improve freedom of expression? Is money more important than liberty? Should we boycott the Olympics Games?

Discussion What about the many other companies that currently collaborate with China? Is one companie „worse“ than the other (Yahoo vs. Google)? Do we need to put more pressure on companies to take up ethical responsibility? How do we perceive the power of lobbying?