Google: “Ultimately censorship fails”
When it comes to China’s persistence in censoring its online space, Google’s Chairman, Eric Schmidt, feels that restricting information is a dying ideal.
“I believe that, ultimately, censorship fails,” Schmidt said. “China [is] the only government that’s engaged in active, dynamic censorship. They’re not shy about it.”
“I personally believe that you cannot build a modern knowledge society with that kind of behavior, that is my opinion,” he continued.
“I think most people at Google would agree with that. The natural next question is when [will China change?] And no one knows the answer to that question; [but] in a long enough time period – do I think that this kind of regime approach will end? I think, absolutely.”
Schmidt also called out the Chinese government on their previous online attacks, which saw many of China’s human rights activists’ Gmail accounts being hacked.
“We believe in empowering people who care about freedom of expression,” Schmidt said. “The evidence today is that Chinese attacks are primarily industrial espionage…It’s primarily trade secrets that they’re trying to steal, and then the human rights issues; that obviously they’re trying to violate people’s human rights.”
“Those are the two things that we know about, but I’m sure that there will be others.”
Source: Foreign Policy
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