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by 07d046 2842 days ago
It's arguing that China could leverage Google's Chinese market access to influence how Google behaves around the world, sort of like how almost all airlines around the world now say Taiwan is part of China:

> Once Google’s new Chinese business is up and running, there will be nothing to stop Beijing from seeking to dictate how references to Taiwan are addressed not just in China but throughout the site globally. China may also demand to shape how protests in Taiwan, Hong Kong, or the mainland are addressed or what happens when people search for dissidents such as Liu Xiaobo or topics such as human rights. While Google executives may believe that their company would never accede to such requests outside of China’s borders, there are no guarantees. If China gains the leverage to shape how Google presents what Beijing considers to be sensitive topics throughout the rest of the world, it will deal a mortal blow to international principles of freedom of expression and thought.

1 comments

I wish I had a super-upvote button. That is exactly my concern... once Google's China revenue is a significant part of the revenue, exactly this will happen. The European car manufactures already do everything that China wants. But at least they do not run a search engine or newspaper.

"Proof:" Google for "Mercedes apologies to China after quoting Dalai Lama" in a tweet for its European customers.