“When you have strict censorship of the internet, young students cannot receive a full education. Their view of the world is imbalanced. There can be no true discussion of the issues.” – Ai Weiwei
China Banned Google – What Is It About?
Every stroke has reason behind it. Today, we are going to examine for the reasons why China banned Google. Did you hear about GFW? If not, let me give you an inkling about it. GFW is the acronym of Great Firewall of China. GFW is used to accomplish internet bowdlerization in China. Out of many websites debarred under this law, perhaps the most imperative website is Google. How do the Chinese government rationalize themselves for GFW? The explanation used is ‘crimes carried out over computer network’. They have assumed that most of the foreign websites are proving an unhealthy environment to the people of China by trying to push views that are against the government of China. In order to protect themselves, they have taken this route to separate the people of China from the world. They have given an isolated world to its people, where the people can see what the governments wants them to see.
Possible Reasons Behind This Action
Do you hark back to the Snowden instance? It displayed that the US government and many of its cronies have been snooping on their users with endorsement from highest management of Google and other websites. The Chinese government entreated for the neck and neck access given to the US government while functioning in China. But they were denied to award this right. As a result, China stopped permitting these companies straight access to its massive user base. In a way, the Chinese government showed its rivalry to these companies. Did you know that Google possesses a check on its user? Whenever, you Google out, ‘How to hack a Facebook account?’ The Google will come to know that you are planning to hack an account even before you do it. The same goes for security and other related fields that are meant to be confidential in a country’s viewpoint. China doesn’t want some other overseas companies like Google or its fatherland to keep tabs on their country’s shipment. Therefore, the only elucidation left to them is to ban such websites. The same message has been conveyed to the citizens of China, that the ban was done to protect their country from the outside forces. It seems like the government of China follows the saying, ‘Prevention is better than cure.’
Google bids articles to users of China, that the Chinese government think is argumentative. The government of China has banned sites that talks about religious conviction, sites that sponsor multiparty democracy in China, sites accommodated outside of China that bargains social networking implements which could be used for speedy broadcasting of statistics or association or the sites that are way too vehement. The Chinese government accept as true that the United States uses the internet as a way to generate universal domination founded on western values. Furthermore, they also believe in the fact that voluminous of the Gmail accounts in China have been recurrently accessed by third parties. From the security of the nation, the issue has dropped to the privacy of the individuals. The government of China is again trying to prove that the Google ban is for the benefit of the people in China. Also banning Google means consenting native search engines like Sina, and Baidu to advance into billion dollar businesses. They are in a way encouraging their local companies. Also, the government can keep healthier regulator of the information that mingles and stress-free monitor user data. The government of China has combined the business management with the political management to maintain its highest position in order to benefit from all the side. Isn’t that a clever use of brain?
But is there a negative side to this ban? Apart from the above stated reasons, are there more reasons that government of China doesn’t want to disclose? The answer is perhaps yes. There are many fillings which the Chinese government doesn’t want publics to see. For instance, the stories about the control struggle and exploitation of the party, the government’s abuse of the human rights and material about equality, communalism and happenings like Tiananmen Massacre. They are trying to show the good side of the government to the people. But can the bad side be denied so easily?
The Profit And Loss Equation
It can be said that banning of Google and many other websites might be a profit for the government, it might also provide protection to the country but it is also deceiving the people of the country by showing them only the one shade of the ban. Local business of the country will surely gain a lot from this incident. A golden opportunity to grab name and fame has landed on their hands. The citizens of China will surely see a loss in their freedom of expressions. Google is surely facing a lost after losing such a huge quantity of users. The most interesting that can be watched is that for how long the ban will exist. Is the ban a matter of few years or forever? Let us see where this ban will lead us to.
This article is written by RaviTeja. He is a student presently pursuing Final year of Computer Science degree, a Blogger by passion and a Tech Enthusiast. Blogging has been one of his favorite works to do. Technology and tricks attract him more than any others does. You can reach him on Twitter at @satyateja13. He blogs at InterestWayPoint.