IT-412 Cyberlaw and Ethics
Short Paper 6-1
A Case Study of Digital Censorship in China
Jason Popejoy
Southern New Hampshire University
As Google's senior vice president for international markets, I have been tasked with
preparing the company for its potential move into the Chinese market. Chinese officials have
demanded we at Google promptly remove all links to all websites the Chinese government has
deemed inappropriate for its citizens from all search results. If we do not comply with these
demands, we at Google will be blocked and unavailable to the citizens of China. As China is a
large new market for Google and seeing the citizens of the country can access Google.com
and still be denied access to "inappropriate" content by China's great firewall, my
recommendation would be to proceed with the move into the Chinese market. The reason for
this decision is that although there are extremely stringent guidelines, we at Google must
follow, we will have access to a potential market, and over time we may be able to introduce
some changes for the better.
The current strategy Google has employed could ultimately be the downfall of the
company in the Chinese market. If the company fails to comply with the laws and regulations
set forth by the Chinese government, Google could be removed from China and lose one of
the largest markets in the world.
Companies such as Cisco should be concerned that their products are being used to
filter out sensitive content in countries such as China. In this case, I, and others can see
China's use of these products as a violation of human rights. On the other hand, many of these
devices are designed for this purpose and are already used in other countries to block content
to different extents, such as to block school children from accessing porn on school networks.
Ultimately, I believe the Chinese government's efforts to censor the internet is a
violation of human rights and free speech. The Chinese government is limiting what its people
have access to and also telling them what they can and cannot view on the internet. Probably
also removing any "fake news" that could harm the governments hold on its people. Ultimately,
with the internet, if a person wants to view something bad enough, they will find a way to do so,
regardless of business or government rules and regulations.