[gentro]

Also if you ask regular Chinese people if they want a censored version of google, most of them would probably say hell yea, when does it launch?

What’s the alternative? Only other censored search engines. And Chinese people know baidu search results suck ass compared to google’s.

So basically the western commentariat killing off dragonfly has a demonstrably negative impact on Chinese quality of life.

But we’re only trying to protect the freedoms of oppressed Chinese people, right?

[CodiePetersen]

That's not the only reason. You're trying to conform your neighboring country to an acceptable global standard. It's not just the feel good immediateness of "I'll take a censored Google because fighting for open access Internet is too hard" It's about that influence that will begin to dictate googles policy as more of their revenue comes from China. It's about changing the way China acts towards its citizens and adjacent neighbors. They are a power that can not be ignored. Their influence and policy progrogates through all companies navigating international business. That in turn effects societies they come from. Additionally they represent a HUGE chunk of the Internet and its hardware and on the topic of information security China definitely plays an important part on the way the global community thinks about policy going forward.

[aclsid]

I don't think you know a lot of Chinese people. They use Baidu when they are outside continental China. It is mostly because the search results are finely tuned to local stuff and it has the big plus of not giving you links that are censored if you are in China so you don't waste your time. I ended up using it myself a couple of times for that reason.

[tmcronn]

If Google proceeded per the government's wishes for these reasons, that sets an interesting precedent.

Companies would be able to implement features they deem to be ethically questionable, so long as they or the public determined that "it's what the customer wanted, anyway".