Bill Gates Defends Chinese Censorship
By Harry McCracken | Monday, January 25, 2010 at 11:50 am
Now Bill Gates has joined Steve Ballmer in seemingly contending that Chinese censorship of the Internet isn’t that big a deal:
You’ve got to decide: Do you want to obey the laws of the countries you’re in, or not? If not, you may not end up doing business there…
[snip]
The Chinese efforts to censor the Internet have been very limited. It’s easy to go around it, and so I think keeping the Internet thriving there is very important.
You can certainly make the case that by staying in China, U.S. Internet businesses are more likely to bring about greater freedom of expression than if they refuse to abide by censorship laws and abandon the country. And Gates is right that the Great Firewall of China is easy to circumvent. But I’ve used the Internet in China–as, surely, has Bill Gates–and I wouldn’t call the censorship “very limited…”
4 Comments
Read more:
2 Comments For This Post
2 Trackbacks For This Post
-
The Internet Spying Problem Back Here Says:
February 9th, 2010 at 11:28 pm[…] is technically true, but I do not have to jump through hoops to watch YouTube uncensored. The information that is collected about me online is probably more […]
-
China digital social expression. — Resonance China Says:
May 23rd, 2010 at 8:57 pm[…] Bill Gates Defends Chinese Censorship (technologizer.com) […]
January 26th, 2010 at 1:13 pm
I’m sure many businesses said the same thing about trade with Germany in 1940. I suppose I should not be surprised at how lacking in a moral compass these formerly important robber barons can be.
February 7th, 2010 at 10:17 pm
Since Bill says, “It’s easy to get around government Censorship…” His company Microsoft should provide ways of getting around the Censorship for free, in fact, he should Silently sponsor free websites that offer ways around the censorship.
Only when the Censorship is negated will Microsoft’s hands be clean.