Mediacheck

China, Google and Me

As two titans scuffle, we see how precious is freedom of information.

By Insiya Rasiwala-Finn, 20 Jan 2010, TheTyee.ca

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As I sit here writing at a dining table by the stormy, winter Pacific Ocean, the tragedies and controversies of the past few days in our tenuous world seem so far away. . . the earthquake in Haiti, the prorogation of the Canadian Parliament, the seething factions that are emerging and will continue to voice their hopes during the Vancouver Olympic Games.

Yet, all of this is alive and current and I am connected to it all via this enmeshed fabric we call the Internet. The week's events have also proven how fortunate I am to live in a place where we do actually have free access to a global Internet that is truly beyond political and national boundaries; an Internet not shrouded by a government's heavy curtain.

For writers and activists, access to information -- be it via proliferating social media or more traditional news sources -- is our lifeblood.

This is why the events that unfolded in China over the past few weeks beg reflection.

Compromises from the start

On January 12, Google Inc. reported, "In mid-December, we detected a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google. However, it soon became clear that what at first appeared to be solely a security incident -- albeit a significant one -- was something quite different."

What Google claims to have observed is that the primary goal of the attackers was to access the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. According to Google's blog, only two accounts were accessed, but only information such as the date when an email was created and its subject line -- not the content itself -- was revealed. Lastly, Gmail users based in North America, China and Europe who are advocates of human rights in China appeared to have been routinely accessed by third parties.

These accounts, said Google, "have not been accessed through any security breach at Google, but most likely via phishing scams or malware placed on the users' computers."

Google has been in China since 2006, and in a statement the company made before the Subcommittee on Global Human Rights, the Committee on International Relations and the United States House of Representatives, Google attempted to outline their logic in launching the Chinese version of Google and the difficulties inherent in their decision to do business in China, when China's "content restriction" and censorship laws ran counter to Google's basic values of free speech and free access to information.

Elliot Schrage VP of Global Communications, expressed hope "that Google.cn will make a meaningful -- though imperfect -- contribution to the overall expansion of access to information in China."

Obviously, recent events have provoked Google to reevaluate their decision.

All about money?

Many commentators are scrutinizing the company's actions and questioning their motives. They ask whether Google isn't just acting from a place of self-interest and a hope for increased market share on its own terms.

Yet, however you choose to view the situation, consider what is at stake here. What can government-controlled restriction lead to but ignorance and disconnect from the rest of the world?

On the CBC I heard former CNN Beijing Bureau Chief, Rebecca MacKinnon, recalling her teaching days in Hong Kong. Her students from Mainland China were stunned when they encountered the unrestricted Internet in Hong Kong. "They were learning about things that they had no idea existed," she said.

She is supportive of Google. "If executives at companies like Google conclude that it's in their self-interest to take a public stand against censorship and unlawful surveillance, and do things that contribute to freedom of information and openness, that is a good thing, whatever their deepest and truest motivations..."

If China's economic reform programs and its citizens' entrepreneurial flair continue to benefit millions of Chinese people, isn't intellectual freedom and the drive for it inevitable? And doesn't global economic engagement eventually lead to global intellectual and artistic and cultural exchange?

Far-reaching implications

I applaud Google's stance on free speech and open networks.

Yes, the company stands to profit from transparency, but don't we all?

And in a world where idealistic Western democratic rhetoric does not match diplomatic practice -- at least not yet -- Google deserves praise for lobbying for change.

I expect what grows out of such tough conversations will have an impact not only in China, but in Iran and many other authoritarian regimes. And even back here at my dining room table, where I scan my computer screen on the stormy far edge of world. [Tyee]

Insiya Rasiwala-Finn is a writer and yoga instructor living in Ucluelet after returning from months of travels in Asia. She writes regularly for The Vancouver Observer, where a version of this piece also appears.

9 Comments:

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  • Jeffrey J.

    2 years ago

    Interesting Analysis

    Always interesting to read different views on the conduct of powerful nations. Like China. And the US. The key being, we need to measure every powerful society by the same standards. Principles of justice also state that the more powerful a society, the more accountable they should be, and the more obligations they have to the less powerful

    As Ms. Rasiwala-Finn states, :Yet... consider what is at stake here. What can government-controlled restriction lead to but ignorance and disconnect from the rest of the world?"

    A must read to answer this question is James Bamford's well researched book The Shadow Factory. In this account we learn how the US is recording every single email, phone call, text message that occurs across the US (and Canada). Hard to believe? Read his book.

    In addition, the US and Harper want to help throttle the internet and restrict citizen freedom.

    http://www.democracynow.org/2008/10/14/james_bamford_the_shadow_factory_the

    I welcome the author's interest in growing tyranny and creeping authoritarianism. We will need literate voices like this, right here in BC, if we are to keep even a semblance of a once strong democracy.

  • Jeffrey J.

    2 years ago

    US and China

    And in the same vein, the following article discusses further examples of US spying on its own citizens:

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/19/fbi-terror-emergencies-phone-calls

  • dorothy

    2 years ago

    big, BIGger, BIGGEST

    I always figured they were doing something like this. However, one wonders of the mash they produce this way. How is it being utilized: If I comment to a friend that a particularly juicy bit of gossip is a 'bombshell', is that going to flash a little red light and make somebody jump up and find out what kind of fish I am, and roll up my past, present and future history? I hope the filters are better than that...

    The 'melons', yeah, if it is a naked number, I would think it fishy, too. I would at least expect a bit of comment of there being some overripe ones in there and how to handle the lot, and so on. One has to put things into context. And complete lack of context is suspect. Our lives just aren't like that in the daily grinding mill. We natter on, and terse communication IS remarkable...

    I don't know what people want? We want them to catch the bad guys, like kiddie porn nuts and so on. How are they going to do that without some peeping into communications? My worst fear is actually, that they are doing this in such a catch-all, unsophisticated way that the info can't even be used, due to the sheer massive size of the lot, and they're just wasting taxpayers' money.

  • Van Isle

    2 years ago

    Wasn't it Nortel who created

    Wasn't it Nortel who created the present computer system, for the Chinese Government, which allows them to spy on their own citizens? And if I remember right Nortel go paid $8 billion for their services.

  • mikev

    2 years ago

    hypocracy

    If we really did "live in a place where we do actually have free access to a global Internet that is truly beyond political and national boundaries; an Internet not shrouded by a government's heavy curtain", then I might feel OK scolding China. Until we do, I will keep my focus closer to home.

    We aren't allowed to see pictures of naked children, in places like the UK it's a crime to even draw a picture of a naked child. It's going to ridiculous lengths where it is even a crime to display some classic art.
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7770456.stm
    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/01/pop_life_tate_exhibition_censored/

    Similar in Australia:
    http://www.news.com.au/henson-scandal-sparks-legal-overhaul/story-0-1111117853610

    All well and good you might say, everyone agrees we should do all we can to end all forms of child abuse, until you realize you might lose your job and be put on a list of monsters because on your computer you have a picture of your child naked in the tub or at the beach. There is a line and the authorities are only too happy to cross it.

    Or how easy it is to wipe out a website at the merest hint of a copyright infringement.
    http://theyesmen.org/canadareacts

    Or how easy it is for corporations, nevermind governments, to censor the internet.
    http://thetyee.ca/News/2005/08/04/TelusCensor/
    http://www.thestar.com/article/255628

    Or if you dare to take photos of police at a protest:
    http://www.fair.org/activism/fbi-indymedia.html

    And on and on and on. And notice how often in their zeal to censor the internet they inadvertently wipe out access to hundreds of other websites.

    In China they overreact to threats to political stability. In "western civilization" they overreact almost as harshly to threats to corporate profits. I really don't think we have the high ground in this argument, at least not as high as some people make it out.

  • barney

    2 years ago

    new tech brings new issues

    I'm trying to dig back in my memory from those Chomsky books on manufacturing consent and propaganda I read many years ago, and apply it to the new Internet global realities... the line of thinking says that the difference between totalitarian regimes like China and liberal-democratic regimes is only a matter of degree ans methodology. China is more up front and honest about its total control; whereas the USA (and others) pretend to be free and employ more subtle and less overt methods of control.

    There's a popular myth floating around that somehow social media frees us from the shackles of control. I think the reality is we have more in common with China than we want to admit. And this is the elephant in our social media room.

    There has been a transitional period of relative freedom to the Internet since its inception, but that period of freedom is diminishing, not expanding. Social media is just another version of 'bread and circus' and it's more insidious than past versions because it gives the illusion of real democratic emancipation and empowerment.

  • EastVanRon

    2 years ago

    Google leaving China due to insurmountable protectionism?

    I read a fascinating story into Google and China the other day.

    Gist of it is that Twitter, FaceBook, YouTube, and even Flickr have been blocked in China. Sometimes just long enough for Chinese competitors to gain the market lead.

    It's about *protectionism*. That's why, upon Google's announcement, the share prices of the three Chinese competitors all rose.

    Strikes me as somewhat altruistic of Google to publicize the cyber-attacks: none of the 20-30 other companies went public.

    Excuse me while I go find that link, be right back... Thanks for waiting:

    http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/01/14/chinas_foreign_internet_purge

    A quote as preview:

    Even a seemingly harmless site, like photo-sharing website Flickr, has been blocked in China, while its identical clone Bababian has grown steadily with foreign technology and no foreign competition. Likewise, blog-hosting sites Blogger and WordPress have long been blocked in China. Instead, Chinese netizens use Tianya, the 13th-most popular site in China. Far from being a sanitized land of boring blogs about daily activities, Tianya also hosts China's largest Internet forum, a vitriolic, sensationalized, and hate-filled arena that makes Western gossip sites seem like the Economist.

  • Fii

    2 years ago

    Note to editor

    The caption under the photo should say "Whose" not "Who's" :)

  • Geoff

    2 years ago

    Administrator

    Thanks, Fii!

    Fixed now.

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