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UPDATE: Google threatens to quit China
On 13 January 2010, Google announced that it may be pulling out of China after it emerged that hackers had been attempting to access the Gmail accounts of human rights activists. Google dropped the web filters imposed on Google searches by the Chinese government, leading to content which had previously been censored suddenly being made available to web users in China. Google users in China reported that content such as images of the Tiananmen Square massacre were suddenly available using a Google images search.Free Tibet led a high profile campaign against Google in 2006, when Google and other companies agreed to self-censorship in order to operate in the Chinese market. For reference, information on the campaign is below.
Free Tibet Campaign deplores Google's capitulation to political pressure from China to provide a web-based search engine for the Chinese market that prohibits access to information about Tibet and other sensitive political issues, such as the protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989.
On 20 July 2006 Amnesty International has launched a global campaign against internet repression. The campaign aims to claim back the web as a force for change in the face of an increasing willingness on the part of technology companies to aid censorship and repression.
Free Tibet Campaign shares Amnesty International's concern that "the internet's potential for change is being undermined -- by governments unwilling to tolerate this free media outlet, and by companies willing to help them repress free speech."
Sun Microsystems, Nortel Networks, Cisco Systems, Yahoo! and Google are among those companies implicated in helping governments censor the internet or track down individual users. For further information on the campaign go to
http://irrepressible.info
Boycott Google's services including search engine and email account.
There are many alternative search engines you can use, the most ethical choice being www.everyclick.com.
Set your chosen charity as Tibet Watch, and contribute to this affiliated charity with every click.
BACKGROUND
In January 2006 Google announced that it is to capitulate to political pressure from China and provide a web-based search engine for the Chinese market that will prohibit access to information about Tibet and other sensitive political issues, such as Taiwan and the protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989.
In a clear violation of its own philosophy which states: 'You can make money without doing evil', Google chose to provide China's oppressive regime with tools of surveillance and restriction in order to gain access to a growing Chinese market of internet users.
Google not only violates its own corporate values but facilitates human rights abuses by China. Freedom of information is a basic human right of all people, Chinese and Tibetans included, and article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says: "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression... [and] to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers".