Baidu, China sued in U.S. for Internet censorship

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/18/us-baidu-censorship-lawsuit-idUSTRE74H7N120110518

by ssclafani • 15 years ago

8 7 15 years ago

ygreek2• 15 years ago

I do not understand on what grounds the Chinese company that serves Chinese users is being sued in New York. The search results are censored because Chinese law requires doing so. What does it have to do with the US?

doyoulikeworms• 15 years ago

Furthermore, what does this have to do with the first amendment?

anigbrowl2• 15 years ago

I do not understand your confusion since those questions are clearly answered in the article.

- Chinese language searches on Baidu made from within the US are censored

- This is an infringement of the civil rights of the [edit: US-based] Chinese writers whose works are being sought out by US-based readers of Chinese

- Title VII forbids such abridgments of a person's civil rights

The bottom line is not that Baidu can't censor its results in accordance with the policies of the Chinese government, but that it can not conduct business within the US at the same time.

I'm not sure that the plaintiffs can win their case, but that's not really the point - even if they lose, it still shines a bright light on Baidu's censorious practices.

ygreek2• 15 years ago

I am not a layer, so I do not really understand what does the phrase "conducting business in the US" means. Does creating a website amounts to the "business in the US", since by the nature of the internet, websites in any country would normally be accessible in the US? Or does one need to have customers in the US? Or is it something else?

So I am wondering, how could they stop conducting business in the US? Should they just block the access from the US based IP? If they would do so, would that really be better then censorship?

bigwally• 15 years ago

Looks like the lawyer Stephen Preziosi will make some money out of this.

The only reason a case like this would exist would be to make negative headlines in China.

aphexairlines• 15 years ago

In other news, US porn sites infringe on Japanese decency laws by publishing images of genitals on the Internet?

Baidu, China sued in U.S. for Internet censorship

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