Google vs. China vs. Google: update roundup

Xeni Jardin 5:01 pm Tue Jan 19, 2010

• Must-read commentary by Open Society fellow Rebecca MacKinnon: "Are China's demands for Internet 'self-discipline' spreading to the West?" and a related post, "Google, China, and the future of freedom on the global Internet." And today, a related piece from MacKinnon, which includes the memorable line, "Never fear, netizens of internet-censoring nations, America is here to save you, galloping in on our trusty steed Google, brandishing our mighty weapon, Twitter!!"

• "I almost got weepy when I read the news about Google, then I put down my crack pipe." The real reason Google wants out of China? It's not human rights, says Oxblood Ruffin.

• Joe Stewart of Atlanta-based computer security research firm SecureWorks has identified what he believes is clear evidence of "the digital fingerprints of Chinese authors" in malware used to attack Google in China. Related: Markoff's articles on the possibility that hackers left backdoors. (NYT)

• Photograph: Flowers at the Google headquarters office in China (China Digital Times).

• Ten websites that will help you understand the Chinese Internet. "All of them survived China's censorship, and are developing rapidly," says the post's author, "Donnie" Hao. "Compare[d] to the websites that has been blocked, they are the real mainstream for the over 400 million Chinese netizens." (via Ethan Zuckerman)

• Doc Searls: "Encirclement is more than censorship. It's a war strategy, and China has been at war with the Internet from the start."

(image: "Spy vs. Spy," a fan-riff on the famous Mad Magazine comic, by deviantart user Zarious)

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