China Is Forcing Tech Companies to Choose Between Profits and Free Speech

https://onezero.medium.com/china-is-forcing-tech-companies-to-choose-between-profits-and-free-speech-aed1f4db3a4

by jimmy2020 • 7 years ago

105 40 7 years ago

onezero.medium.com

dear2• 7 years ago

"Short Term Profits and Long Term Death" vs Free Speech

wutbrodo2• 7 years ago

How do you figure? Is it your impression that being ethical is generally good for corporations financially? You're much more optimistic about both the way the economy works and other people than i am. (I should note that I'm not a believer in the "corporations automatically behave soulless and corrupt" camp that's so popular; I just think that your comment's implication goes too far in the other direction)

dear2• 7 years ago

You don't understand how things work in China. It has nothing to do with ethics. You give up free speech so you can make a few bucks in China. But in the long run they will only let their own companies thrive. Those the communist party can control. You will be eaten alive.

PeterStuer2• 7 years ago

The article states that "We’ve grown used to Americans getting fired for social media posts that offend other Americans. Now it’s clear they can also be punished for posts that offend China.".

Seems like companies were forced to make and have made that choice long before the China issue.

jimmy20203• 7 years ago

Do you think what's going on inside US politics is the same in China? I mean, have you ever heard about Americans getting fired because of supporting protest? Or is there anything similar to the situation in Hong Kong?

syshum2• 7 years ago

>I mean, have you ever heard about Americans getting fired because of supporting protest?

Yes... If you support Libertarian or Conservative things

PeterStuer2• 7 years ago

Depends how you want to frame 'the same'. The way I interpreted the article it is postulating both as dismissal on the grounds of voicing an opinion that is deemed offensive to a constituency the organization wants to be in good standing with.

svrtknst• 7 years ago

Yes, and the choice is embarrassingly simple, especially for multi-million - or billion - companies.

qubex• 7 years ago

The obvious answer is: companies’ profit motive should not be allowed to impact people’s rights. They’re just not even remotely comparable.

ourlordcaffeine• 7 years ago

Here is my github repository tracking who chose what path

https://github.com/caffeine-overload/bandinchina

The list of corporations who stood up to China is very short unfortunately

China Is Forcing Tech Companies to Choose Between Profits and Free Speech

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