Technology censorship in China

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Censored technology companies in China is a concept that talks about how Chinese government censor the Chinese technology companies and restrict the content they publish on their platforms. Chinese government . Typically, censorship is defined as the suppression or prohibition of any parts of books, films, news, etc. that are considered obscene, politically unacceptable or a threat to security.[1] As the rapid development of Internet technology, Chinese government has started to censor more massively and aggressively. The type of censorship varies from companies to companies but they are all done in order to prohibiting Chinese citizens from knowing and spreading information including but not limited to controversial events, reactionary speech, government actions, and violent and pornographic contents. For those companies that do not enter Chinese market or reject the censorship from Chinese government, they were blocked from Chinese Internet. The most notable blocking mechanism is known as “the Great Firewall”, with its name inspired by the historical architecture “the Great Wall”. In recent years, Chinese government is not satisfied with government censorship but requires individual technology companies to establish self-censorship mechanisms. [2]

Response of Censored tech companies

Google:exit

In the face of China's strict Internet regulations, Google adopted a strong attitude of resistance, and finally exit Chinese market to resist the censorship from the Chinese government. On January 12, 2010, Google made a statement titled 'A new approach to China' on its official blog, stating that the company will consider canceling content censorship on Google.cn. [3] Google claimed that its Gmail service was hacked by a "well-planned and targeted" attack from China in mid-December 2009, which resulted in the theft of intellectual property. The hackers focused on the e-mails of Chinese human rights activists [4]. Mercury News reported that, although Google did not specify that the Chinese mainland government was responsible for the attack on the account, according to a person close to Google, Google engineers did trace the hackers to the Chinese government or its agents.[5] On March 23 of the same year, Google China announced that it decided to withdraw from the Chinese market due to "being attacked by Chinese hackers" and "network censorship".[6] Google has redirected its search services from two existing Google China domains (google.cn and g.cn) to Google Hong Kong (google.com.hk). Its servers in Hong Kong offer a search engine that has not been censored by mainland China.( https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/谷歌退出中国大陆事件#cite_note-28,注:是个wiki词条)

Apple: Compromise

2. Apple: compromise Under Chinese government's strict regulation of the Internet, Apple has taken many big compromises to stay at the Chinese market. (1) APPs Apple has made many adjustments to follow Chinese internet regulation. One of these adjustments is removing some apps from its “App Store” in Chinese version. In 2009, Apple removed apps mentioning the 14th Dalai Lama and Rebiya Kadeer from its App Store in mainland China.( Mozur, Paul. "Apple Removes Apps From China Store That Help Internet Users Evade Censorship." The New York Times. Archived from the original 29 June 2017. Retrived from 16 April 2021 </ref> Sunshine Weekly, an independent current affairs magazine in Hong Kong, had an existing iPad app in mainland China in the past. Users in mainland could download and purchase this app freely to get some news about Hong Kong. However, in 2013, after Chinese authorities contacted with Apple, asking it to take this app off the “App Store”, the company did subsequently [7] In April 2013, the Daily Telegraph and the financial times reports that in order to "please" the mainland government, the Apple inc. removed an app Bookstore ("经典书城“)from its application market (“App Store”) in China. This app allows and the reader to see 10 books that has been banned by Chinese mainland government. [8]

In 2016, Apple removed the New York Times app. The New York Times had been working on several stories about the Chinese government in the weeks leading up to the removal of the app. One, published on Dec. 29, revealed that the Chinese government has given the world's largest iPhone factory billions of dollars in the form of covert special treatment and subsidies. In another article, published on Dec. 22, the Times described an anti-Western Internet video that had been widely promoted by China's public security authorities. ( https://cn.nytimes.com/china/20170105/new-york-times-apps-apple-china/)
  1. Oxford Dictionary [en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/censorship " Definition of Censorship in English by Oxford Dictionaries"], Retrieved on 15 April 2021
  2. Information Control and Self-Censorship in the PRC and the Spread of SARS [1]
  3. Google. "A new approach to China" 13 January 2010. Retrived from 15 April 2021
  4. Yuan Li "Gmails of social activists are invaded", Ming News, 15 January 2010
  5. John Boudreau and Mike Swift "Google cyberattack from China reverberates around the world" Archived from the original on 14 January 2012. Retrived from 16 April 2021
  6. "Google's Statement about Google China" Archived from the original on 29 March 2010. Retrived from 16 April 2021.
  7. Guoxin Cao "Chinese media criticizing Apple might have something to do with Apple enhancing App regulation" Archived from the original on 30 March 2013. Retrived from 16 April 2021
  8. Lance Whitney "Apple bans Chinese bookstore app over 'illegal content'" Archived from original on 07 April 2013. Retrived from 16 April 2021