And the battle wages on…
The latest in an almost juvenile yet entertaining (and I’ll admit it, liberating) move by Google has them yet again, sticking it to the red man. We’ve already seen Google close up shop with their .cn search page, choosing to redirect it to google.hk — Hong Kong’s freer flowing version. China responded by filtering results. So Google countered again with another “catch me if you can” by implementing the now common accompanying Twitter feed essentially killing two censored birds with one stone. First off, the Twitter feeds included in search results are not censored, including plenty of highly controversial topics involving China. Second, Twitter itself has been more or less banned in China for obvious reasons. Awesome, a twofer!
So now we all just sit back and wait for China to make their next move and then see how Google responds. It’s fun for me and I’m sure it’s fun for a lot of you out there. Nothing like a little playground justice, huh?
LA Times Tech Blog
Seeing a headline mentioning anything geeky or tech based being banned often conjures up initial reactions of malice and disgust as such governments and government bodies that do such things do so for their own agenda — not the citizens’. With that in mind, hold off on any initial feelings you may have when hearing that the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs has banned prepaid cellphones in Kashmir and declared that any existing SIM cards with such plans not be renewed. Again, it’s deeper than it appears on the surface.
You may be thinking that the reason for such a band would be the government trying to muscle out competition with their own proprietary format/spec/cash cow. But that isn’t the case at all. The Ministry cites “security concerns” as the reason for the kibosh. Heck, even the vague and often misused term “security concerns” can be seen as a front for a deeper issue.
However, it is a legitimate concern as according to the Ministry, security checks and other procedures are not being properly followed leading to users getting multiple connections and carriers and cellular providers taking advantage of said customers. Plus it doesn’t help that Kashmir and Jammu lie on a heavily turbulent boundary line with Pakistan. Naturally terrorists and those that aren’t so friendly prefer prepaid, month-to-month deals as….well…they probably won’t be around to see the life of a multi-year contract. Now the reasons become more clear. Don’t they?
Just because here in America we are use to carriers and the government sticking up for big business pockets doesn’t mean every government follows suit. Any Indiana readers care to chime in on the pro’s and con’s of living with such a rule?
Cellular-News
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