Chinese Professor Suing Google And Yahoo For Making Him Disappear From Chinese Search
from the dissident-seo dept
We've seen plenty of lawsuits over the years from people who were upset over how Google ranked them in search results, but here's an interesting twist on that idea. Guo Quan, a professor in China who lost his job after founding a democracy group and pushing for a more democratic China, is going to sue Google and Yahoo for removing all results with his name in China. Google and Yahoo, of course, have agreed to play by local rules in China, upsetting many. Legally, it would seem like this suit has little chance of success -- but I doubt that he cares about the legal result. What this actually does is to call attention to his plight -- and on that front, it's clearly a successful strategy.
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A solution by Chuck Norris' Enemy (deceased) on Feb 8th, 2008 @ 8:03am
Sue China, they are the ones censoring him. That is, of course, a death sentence. But he may have already gotten one.
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Someone who understand the Streisand Effect? by Jeffry Houser on Feb 8th, 2008 @ 8:08am
It sounds like someone might be using the Streisand Effect intentionally. Novel concept
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by Koala MeatPie on Feb 8th, 2008 @ 9:22am
Sueing Google because he Disappeared from The Net...
10$ says he,ll just plain disappear next.
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Good luck to him... by Anonymous Coward on Feb 8th, 2008 @ 10:29am
Pushing for reform is China is a scary thing; he must be a brave man. I hope he gets what he's working for.
Does the presence of his name mean that you can't find this techdirt article if you're searching in China?
Guo Quan Guo Quan Guo Quan Guo Quan Guo Quan
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by Fernando on Feb 8th, 2008 @ 12:35pm
Headline is wrong. He's not "suing." He issued a press release saying he plans to sue. He can't do so in China, so first has to come to the U.S. and raise some money. Not too likely.
But hey, the bogus headline got you onto Slashdot.
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Muslim Censorship of YouTube by Lee Phillips on Feb 8th, 2008 @ 1:06pm
YouTube is owned by Google, which has been famously cooperative with the Chinese government. Perhaps those experiences have taught them that they can bow to demands for political censorship without risking their market share nor the embrace of the techno-literati.
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Chinese Professor Suing Google And Yahoo For Makin by Elfed Dowler-Jones on Feb 9th, 2008 @ 1:00am
A brave man indeed! What can we learn from this?
.....we are compliant in China's dictatorship.
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acting not just talking by Anonymous Coward on Feb 9th, 2008 @ 8:21am
every person and company should add some Chinese banned keywords in their pages possibly adding as meta tags.
this would eventually causing all content to
disappear when searched in China and naturally makes also political point against Google, Yahoo, or any other company for their actions in China.
//arl
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Re: acting not just talking by 4-80-sicks on Feb 11th, 2008 @ 9:47am
That's a nice idea, but it doesn't really work unless you get a significant majority of websites in the world to participate. I'm all for grass roots, but good luck with that, especially when it comes to corporations.
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Google voted for it by Always looking for better on Feb 12th, 2008 @ 5:03am
As the Google board voted to offer no resistance to such tactics I have already started working hard to ensure I use them as little as I can.
I find it unfortunate that Yahoo has seems to have lost no sleep over the issue.
Guess I'll have to find another search engine and cancel my email address.
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by Anonymous Coward on Feb 13th, 2008 @ 2:24pm
I guess he really must love Guns and Roses...
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