As social media expands, authoritarian nations will have a harder time benefiting from it while preserving their autocratic ways. This was exemplified by China’s battle with Google between 2006 and 2014.
In 2006, Google launched google.cn. To do this, the then-small company had to agree to abide by Chinese government censorship. However, to avoid losing its social conscience entirely, it published a short notice whenever search material was screened-out. The notice infuriated Chinese officials, who prefer their censorship be done in secret. Three years of arguments and skirmishes followed. Then in 2009, a major hack-attack from within China targeted Google intellectual property and other sensitive data. Betting the government needed its search engine to stimulate the economy, Google announced that it would no longer abide by the censorship. The government, however, did not cave–it forced Google off the mainland to Hong Kong. For a while, the government allowed Gmail and Google Maps through “The Great Firewall,” but in mid-2014, the government blocked all remaining Google features. China’s internet industry had grown-up by then (fueled by Chinese engineers and entrepreneurs who had worked in Silicon Valley) and Google was no longer needed.
China has the dilemma of trying to reap the rewards of increased information availability without losing control of it. The Communist Party sees information control as crucial to its hold on power, but perhaps it shouldn’t worry so much. Says Yasheng Huang, a professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Business, the Chinese people want more openness, but not necessarily more democracy. Chinese culture doesn’t link the two the way people do in the West.
So, China will continue to develop its information economy and try to control its information. Whether that’s possible is not clear, but western companies seem willing to play along. In 2017, Google announced it was creating a new AI research center in Beijing, and it’s developing a new search engine, Dragonfly, to get back into China. Whether China allow it is another matter–some Chinese officials are still peeved by Google’s 2010 ultimatum. It appears Chinese culture does have a long memory.
Reference:
Will Knight, “China vs. the US: Who wins and who loses,” MIT Technology Review, vol 122, no 1, Jan/Feb 2019, p.46.
Matt Sheehan, “Locked out of the Chinese room,” MIT Technology Review, vol 122, no 1, Jan/Feb 2019, pp.79-86.
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